This weekend’s Panthers rookie minicamp includes a player who might just be the fastest ever to don an NFL uniform.
Marvin Bracy, who redshirted for one season on Florida State’s football team before quitting to focus full-time on track, is at the Panthers’ minicamp, hoping to earn a roster spot as a wide receiver. Bracy is notable for his extraordinary speed: His fastest 100-meter dash time ever was 9.93 seconds.
That makes Bracy faster than Jimmy Hines, who played in 10 NFL games in 1969-70, and whose 9.95-second 100-meter dash won him the gold medal at the 1968 Olympics and stood as the world record for 15 years. Hines is the only person ever to both run a 100-meter dash in less than 10 seconds and play in an NFL game.
Bracy, however, acknowledges that he’s run a 40-yard dash timed as fast as the 4.22-second record-breaking time that Bengals first-round pick John Ross put up at this year’s Scouting Combine.
“I feel like my speed is different. I feel like me in open space, there is nobody that can bring me down,” Bracy said, via ESPN. “I feel I probably would be the fastest guy in the NFL . . . next to John Ross. That guy is pretty fast.’’
If Bracy makes the Panthers’ roster, a Bracy-Ross race for the title of NFL’s fastest man would be a lot of fun. Even if Marvin Lewis would not approve.