40-yard oops! Watch fans stumble and face-plant through NFL Draft challenge in KC
In your mind’s eye, it looks so good, right?
Ready. Set. Go!
Run the 40-yard dash in the National Football League at 4.4 seconds or less and you’re fast. Run it even quicker and you may as well be The Flash or, better yet, Tyreek Hill, aka Cheetah. (The former Kansas City Chief, now with the Miami Dolphins, once clocked in at 4.29 seconds.)
But at the NFL Draft’s fan festival Friday, some runners were lucky to finish what might have been called the 40-yard oops, or 40-yard shoe-loss, or the 40-yard stumble-over-your-own-legs-and-face-plant.
Note to adults: Stretch!
The day before, one mom dropped to the grass after pulling her hamstring and was carted off in a wheelchair. Another parent snapped his hamstring altogether, medics said. On Friday, one dad finished, but limped and winced away.
To be fair, the vast majority of those who opted to run finished in fine condition and spirits. A guy even ran in under 5 seconds with his shoes off. Seemed that the younger and lower to the ground the runners were (we’re talking kids here, people) the less stumbling there was.
One fall or two suggested that maybe Mom or Dad lost their balance in order to let their kids win. Whatever the truth, even the most flagrantly tangle-footed got back up, seemingly no worse for wear, smiling, cheered on by the crowd
Just as we all imagine.
The NFL Fan Experience will continue until 10 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday outside the National World War I Museum and Memorial.
This story was originally published April 28, 2023 at 6:29 PM with the headline "40-yard oops! Watch fans stumble and face-plant through NFL Draft challenge in KC."
