Olympics hopeful, 49ers WR Marquise Goodwin wins NFL '40 Yards of Gold' competition

You might label Marquise Goodwin a ringer at the 40 Yards of Gold competition for lightning-fast NFL players Saturday night in Sunrise, Fla. Not that the San Francisco 49ers wide receiver was alone among the 16 contestants with a track and field background. But Goodwin knows his way around a running surface with lanes as much as anyone.

Three years ago, Goodwin placed third at the U.S. Indoor Track and Field Championships in the 60-meter dash, just a few ticks longer than the distance at this inaugural event.

Sprinting is not even his forte in the sport. The ex-University of Texas luminary was a long jumper in the 2012 Summer Olympics.

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Still, Goodwin carried odds of 5-to-1, higher than three entrants, into the 40 Yards of Gold just to win the eight-man group for offensive players. He had to outrace three rivals in the one-on-one format, then took down Carolina Panthers cornerback Donte Jackson, the best on the defensive players' side of the bracket, in the finale.

The margin of victory was .05 of a second. The players' times were kept secret, for some reason, so hard to say how Goodwin's clockings compare to the 4.27 he registered at the 2013 NFL Scouting Combine.

If you were a wide receiver from a New York franchise, your night was a dud. The Giants' Kevin Snead — who should, as a onetime Division II All-America sprinter, know better — was disqualified after a pair of false starts. The Jets' Robby Anderson triumphed in his opening race, then withdrew.

The title, which results in bragging rights and a $1 million check, presumably caps off a fascinating offseason for Goodwin, who spent his first four seasons with the Buffalo Bills before relocating cross-country.

He posed with a photo with a tiger. He climbed atop an elephant in the ocean and dove off. Perhaps those experiences provided training and inspiration for a nice payday for the ringer.

Next offseason could be especially interesting as well. Goodwin is considering another bid for the U.S. Olympics team.