adidas Football Offers an ISLAND to the Pro Prospect Who Breaks the 40-Yard Dash

For years now, adidas has been pushing its football offering and touting its affection for speed at the at the NFL Scouting Combine by offering various degrees of incentives for prospects to show off their jets in the showcase’s glitziest event, the 40-yard dash.

Since 2013, adidas has been offering hard cash for the drill’s top flyers. That year, they offered an endorsement deal. Since then, the offeres have just gotten more lavish. From $100,000 to the player with the fastest time in 2014, 2015 offered $100,000 to the top three finishers, and last year the offer hit a whopping $1 million dollars to the athlete who could break Chris Johnson’s 4.24.

The generosity, however, was not always without hitches, thanks to the dreaded “fine print.”

In 2015, UAB’s JJ Nelson ran a 4.28, but got tripped up in legalese.  From ESPN.com’s Darren Rovell:

"Adidas said it would pay the top three fastest players who ran the 40-yard dash in its shoes and signed a contract to endorse the brand before they ran $100,000.When Nelson went to the player suite where he had a choice to run in the latest models form Nike, Under Armour and Adidas, he said he chose Adidas not only because the shoes were comfortable but because he was aware of the $100,000 prize.An Adidas news release said that the offer was “open to the athletes who sign with adidas prior to running their official 40 yard dashes later this month,” but Nelson said he wasn’t ever given a chance to sign with the brand."

The year prior, per Rovell, “Oregon State receiver Brandin Cooks won the $100,000 prize from Adidas for running the fastest 40 in its shoes. But Cooks took the money and promptly signed with Nike. So Adidas this year changed the policy to include that a player would also have to sign an endorsement deal.”

adidas is apparently done playing around. This year, the company is like, “Screw it. Let’s give away an island.”

Yes, an island (selected by adidas).

From a release issued this afternoon:

"adidas Football today announced that the brand is offering the opportunity to win an island to the pro prospect in Indianapolis who breaks professional football’s recognized 40-yard dash record. The offer is open to any pro prospect who runs professional football’s recognized 40-yard dash in Indianapolis in the 2017 adizero 5-Star 40 cleats later this month and satisfies the eligibility requirements. Full details of the offer and requirements to be eligible are available at www.adidas.com/us/football."

adidas collaborator the Snoop Dogg seems to have his money riding on USC’s Adoree’ Jackson (admittedly not really an “adidas guy”), John Ross from Washington (who is clocking a 4.3 flat), and Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers.

Truth be told, I could see any one of those three coming close to the mark. And they know it. So, adidas (in all of these years really), lays the carrot before these guys and throws the ball in their court. It’s really quite brilliant.