When John Ross left the NFL Scouting Combine, he had a sense that things wouldn't be the same.
When you break a combine 40-yard dash record that had stood for nearly a decade with a 4.22 clocking, how can they be?
The first sign came when Ross first checked his phone after breaking Chris Johnson's mark, and found 200-plus messages waiting on him. Since then, the likes of Bo Jackson, Mike Vick, and Johnson have reached out to him, via social media or otherwise, with hearty congratulations. But the first person he got to share a moment with was Gary Cablayan, his speed coach. Ross and Cablayan trained at Athletic Republic in Santa Ana, Calif., in preparation for the combine.
"He came up and told me all I had to do was believe in myself. I had run a 4.3 on laser timing in training, and I told him I wanted to get that down," Ross said. "He said by the time the combine comes, with the adrenalyn you'll have, you'll run faster than that. That's hard to believe because you feel like you've given your all in training, but he was right."
The first family member to share the moment with Ross was his younger brother, Gregory, who told Ross he was "living the dream."
Indeed, the dream in Indianapolis was real. Next dream up: Philadelphia on April 27 for the first round of the NFL draft. But first, he'll have his pro day on March 11, where he'll get another chance to work out in front of NFL teams. They won't see him run the 40 again, though.
