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Whenever times are listed for runs on paved quarter-mile surfaces known as drag strips, usually it will say it was a x.xxx-second run at xxx.xx mph.

But, The Sideline has noticed those numbers only tell half of the story.

The time of the run is what the NHRA calls the ET, or elapsed time, and accounts for the time it takes a Top Fuel dragster, Funny Car, Pro Stock Motorcycle or whatever to go from the start line to the finish line.

But -- there's that word again -- there also is the very important RT, or reaction time.

And with races sometimes decided by thousandths of a second (note there are three digits after the decimal point), only listing a drag racer's ET would be like telling someone what the score was for the second half of a game. Just think, do you really care if the Raiders outscored the Broncos 10-7 in the second half if Denver had a 28-point lead at halftime?

Reaction time got the better of Fresnan Gary Scelzi last Sunday at the O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals in Madison, Ill. Scelzi had a faster ET -- 4.863 to 4.873 seconds -- against Cruz Pedregon, but Pedregon was quicker off the line with an RT of .048 seconds to Scelzi's .064 seconds. The .016-second disadvantage was not made up with a run that was .010 seconds quicker in the first-round eliminator.

But the tables were turned in favor of another Fresnan in Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Chris Rivas. And, get this, he posted a perfect RT of .000 seconds -- the first time the 41-year-old has attained perfection off the line. That means that when the lights on the tree turned green, Rivas got his Drag Specialties/S&S/G2 Buell V-Twin off at that exact moment.

Rivas pretty much needed every thousandth of a second because Craig Treble's 6.994-second ET was .009 seconds quicker than Rivas', but Treble's RT was .024. (Sideline's gotta admit, that's not too shabby.)

In Rivas' second-round run, he couldn't put up all zeroes a second straight time and his .008 RT wasn't enough to keep him ahead of Matt Smith.

RT II: Ex-USC TE Davis' is not so fast

Sideline now has made it clear Rivas was lightning quick last Sunday. Sideline can say the exact opposite for Washington Redskins second-round draft pick Fred Davis on the very same day.

In just his third day in the NFL, the former USC tight end was a no-show for a minicamp practice because -- according to Davis -- he overslept.

"Everybody was scouring," coach Jim Zorn said. "Nobody heard from him, so there was one of two scenarios: Either there was some real trouble and we needed to find him, or he screwed up. I haven't even got to talk to him yet. I know he has been found. I believe it is more in the 'I screwed up' category."