Alright, so I wanted to figure out Richie James’ 40 time the other day. It popped into my head while watching some highlights, and I got curious about his speed on paper.
My Process
First thing I did, obviously, was hop on my computer. Opened up my web browser, you know the drill.
Then, I went to my usual search engine. Nothing fancy. I started typing in some pretty basic stuff.
- First try: I just put in “Richie James 40 time”. Simple enough.
- Second variation: Sometimes guys don’t run at the main Combine, so I also tried “Richie James Pro Day time”. Pro Days are where college players work out for scouts if they aren’t invited to the big NFL Combine or want another shot.
- Another angle: I might have also searched “Richie James speed stats” or something similar, just to cover the bases.
Got back a whole load of results. Lots of sports websites, some fan forums, draft analysis pages from back when he was coming out of college.
Sorting through the noise: This is where you gotta be a bit careful. Random forums can have any old number. I usually try to look for results from more established sports news outlets or official-looking draft profiles. Sites like NFL’s own draft section, ESPN, Bleacher Report, or specific college athletic pages tend to be more reliable, usually.
I started clicking through a few of the more promising links. Looked for consistency. Was the same number popping up across different, decent sources?
Finding the Number
What I kept finding mentioned most often was a time recorded at his Pro Day workout at Middle Tennessee State. The Combine results didn’t seem to list him, or maybe he didn’t run there, happens sometimes.
The number that consistently appeared linked to his Pro Day was 4.48 seconds. Saw that on several draft profiles and recaps from that time.
So, that’s the figure I settled on. Went through the search results, compared what different sites were saying, focused on the ones that looked like they pulled from official Pro Day reports, and landed on 4.48.
That was pretty much it. Just a bit of standard online digging, comparing sources, and finding the most commonly reported time from a verifiable event like a Pro Day. Took maybe five, ten minutes tops. Pretty straightforward stuff usually.
