Photo: Northern Iowa football
If the stopwatches at Monday's University of Minnesota pro day were accurate, the NFL might have a new fastest man next season. Northern Iowa wide receiver Terrell Sinkfield manually clocked a 4.19 40-yard-dash on his second try at the sprint, a time that would have surpassed Chris Johnson's NFL combine record (at least, since electronic timing was implemented in 1999) 4.24 in 2008.
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According to Fox Sports North, Sinkfield was asked to run a third time (he had already run 4.27 on his first try) and finished with a 4.41 despite a small stumble.
Via FOX Sports North:
"I knew it was good when I finished," Sinkfield said of his 4.19. "I was pretty happy, so I came back. I thought I messed up when they said go again. I'm like, 'Dang, why do I have to run again?'"It's obvious that the 6-foot-1 Sinkfield is fast. He ran the 100 meters in 10.86 seconds while competing in track as a high school senior. But there's a reason why they don't count the unofficial hand times at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, choosing to rely on electronic times based on a player's start and a beam at the finish.
Sometimes the manual times get it close. However, in the case of someone like West Virginia's Tavon Austin, who was timed at 4.25 seconds in his first run in Indianapolis but officially measured at 4.34, that split second can make a difference in showing a guy who's really fast and someone who is one of the fastest receivers to ever come out of college.
Either way, Sinkfield's performance certainly got the attention of the 13 NFL scouts in attendance, certainly more than his 43 catches for 499 yards and four touchdowns as a senior in 2012 did.
"It hasn't really hit me yet," Sinkfield told FOX Sports North. "I feel like I could have hit it consistently. Me, myself, my personal best, I think I could have done better. It was still a good show here."