For the past several years, the Las Vegas Raiders have hosted USAA’s Salute to Service NFL Boot Camp at Allegiant Stadium, which allows active-duty military members to participate in NFL Combine drills.
Among the drills are the 40-yard dash, broad jump, three-cone shuttle, receiving gauntlet and the quarterback arm challenge. However, the military members aren’t running the drills alone.
The Raiders sent current players Aidan O’Connell and Dalton Wagner to assist in the drills. O’Connell helped the military members with the quarterback arm challenge, while Wagner led the charge on the three-cone shuttle.
O’Connell and Wagner weren’t alone. Former Raiders first-round pick Darren McFadden was also in attendance, helping with the 40-yard dash. Not only did the current and former players help with the drills, but they also took time to meet with the military members and take pictures.
USAA Representative Opens up About Event
The NFL and the military have been closely tied together for a long time. USAA military affairs representative Eric Johnson gave some insight into the event.
“We’re hoping for the military community to come out, enjoy this event … we have service members from Creech and Nellis Air Force base that we’ve invited out to take part of this boot camp and so as you can see, they’re involved in some drills and those drills really are very very close to what would see at an NFL Combine,” Johnson told FOX5 Las Vegas.
The group of 30 military members is separated into six teams of five, and scores are kept throughout each drill. The members of the winning team received two tickets to the Week 18 Raiders-Chiefs game in Las Vegas.
McFadden Addresses Involvement With Event
McFadden has been away from football for a long time, but he was impressed with some of the athleticism he saw.
“We had some people doing pretty good, so I went to the 40 drill. I feel like I’m the 40’s best. We have a guy with a 4.5, and a guy with a high 4.4, so we got some guys moving pretty good out here,” McFadden told FOX5 Las Vegas.
He was really excited to do his part to give back.
“Some of these men and women out here, they’re like, ‘man, it’s amazing to meet you,’ and I’m more excited to meet them because I appreciate what they do,” McFadden added. “It’s that time of year to be thankful.”
McFadden does his best to stay in shape, but he’s not interested in testing his speed at this point in his life. When asked by Heavy Sports what his 40-yard time would be now, he said 4.33, which is what he ran at the NFL Combine in 2008 and the last time he ran the 40-yard dash.
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This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
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