We all feel for poor Vick Ballard, the Mississippi State running back who ate it on his first attempt at the 40-yard dash Sunday at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Ballard stumbled out of his break, took a few steps before he crashed into the automatic timer and tripod at the 10-yard mark. He found more success on his second go, remaining upright and clocking in at respectable-if-unremarkable 4.65 seconds. That placed him 16th out of 25 running backs who participated in the event.
There's a lesson to be learned here about the importance of getting up when you fall, about believing in yourself, about the resiliency that founded America. But really, the only question we have is how long Ballard's friends must wait before it's OK to make fun of him.
Let's go with 24 hours to 36 hours.
