Background

Last year, Adidas made a promotional offer of $1 million to anyone who broke the NFL Combines 40 yard dash record. Naturally, they set conditions, but those were easily satisfied: The winner had to break the record in ADIDAS shoes, then sign an endorsement deal before the season started. The record held, so this year Adidas made a comparable but far more tangible offer: Break the record, win an island.

The Event
John Ross ran a blistering 4.22, or 0.02 seconds faster than CJ2Ks (former) record of 4.24 in 2008, but apparently that was the "easy" part.

The Punchline
He did it <href="http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/03/john-ross-nfl-combine-40-yard-dash-record-breaking-adidas-island-nike-cleats">in a pair of NIKE Vapor 4.2s. So Revis Island remains all alone in an empty NFL sea. Ross was quick to rationalize his "sad" fate by noting he neither swims well nor owns a boat (wisely heeding Odell Beckham Jrs. cautionary tale), so no big loss, right? Anyway, he had already signed an alternate endorsement deal with Nike, so followed up his record-breaking performance by tweeting a pic of the Nike Vapor 4.2 with the caption "There's only one option when you want to go 4.2." Great, John, and many of us would likely heed THAT moral, except "They weigh 6.9 ounces and have a full carbon plate as part of the shoe. Unfortunately, they’re exclusive for the combine, so you won’t be able to buy the Vapor 4.2s yourself."

So the real moral is: Wear Adidas and take whatever endorsement offered after the Combine, because it costs nothing and... you never know....