40-Year-Old Michael Vick Ran a 4.72-Second 40-Yard Dash

In Monday’s Hot Clicks: Michael Vick’s stunning 40 time, a bad night for the Lakers and more.

He still runs like the wind

How fast is Michael Vick? So fast that he still might be able to outrun the average NFL quarterback.

Vick’s speed was what made him the No. 1 pick in the 2001 draft. He ran a 4.33-second 40-yard dash at the combine that year. At a minicamp a few weeks later, he ran a 4.36, the fastest time among all 19 Falcons rookies in attendance. His combine 40 remains the fastest time ever recorded by a quarterback (although, we should note that Lamar Jackson elected not to run).

But 20 years later, nearing his 41st birthday, Vick’s speed is still impressive. Vick was one of several former NFL stars who participated in NFL Network anchor Rich Eisen’s annual “Run Rich Run” event to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Some of the former pros clocked pretty decent times (like 48-year-old Terrell Davis’s 5.03), but no one was as fast as Vick.

Vick was clocked at 4.72 seconds, which is exactly what new Patriots quarterback Mac Jones ran at the combine this year. And yet, Vick was disappointed with his time. 

“Apparently I can’t run no more,” he said. “I’m just facing the music.”

Now, Vick’s 40 was hand-timed, not laser timed like runs at the combine. Hand timing makes it extremely difficult to accurately measure the fractions of a second that make all the difference in a short sprint like the 40. Remember last summer when 46-year-old Terrell Owens allegedly ran a 4.4-second 40? That was hand-timed. I looked at the video frame-by-frame and determined he actually ran a 4.9.

But hand-timing can be inaccurate in both directions. Maybe Vick ran something closer to Owens’s 4.9. Or maybe it was even faster than the 4.72 on the stopwatch. He looks like he’s in great shape, so it wouldn’t be out of the question.

If the 4.72 time is accurate, it would place Vick near the top of this year’s quarterback class. Only Justin Fields (4.45), Feleipe Franks (4.61) and Zac Thomas (4.59) were faster. (Trey Lance, who ran for 1,100 yards as a sophomore at North Dakota State, chose not to run at the combine but reportedly clocked in the 4.5 range in training.) That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody who saw him play. 

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