The NFL Scouting Combine: The dorkiest event in sports
February 21st, 2008, 12:19 pm · Post a Comment · posted by patrickdonohue
You’d think, being an NFL draft fiend, that I’d love everything and anything draft-related and the prospect of college football’s best players being tested, interviewed, poked and prodded by NFL execs and coaches would be right up my alley. And the event takes places annually in Indiana? You’d think I’d love this stuff, right? Soaking up each and every 40, bench press and broad jump. Well, you’d be dead wrong.
I hate the NFL combine.
Quick, think of any player that had a great combine that turned out to be a great NFL player. Pretty tough, huh? It’s because there aren’t any. The combine is a test of a player’s football abilities while somehow managing to have very little to do with actually playing football.
As a fan, I have absolutely no interest in how my team’s potential first round pick (and I pray it’s not an offensive or defensive lineman) looks in a tight-fitting t-shirts and a pair of shorts. What interests me is the player’s college career, how he looks on films, how he plays and how he practices.
Throughout history, there has been very little correlation between a player having a great combine and being a great player. In fact, it more often than not works in the inverse. Players like Mike Mamula and Matt Jones were workout warriors and NFL flame-outs (at least Mamula was, Jones is on his way there).
And then the NFL is arrogant enough to think that the whole of the football-crazy public wants to watch Early Doucet run a 40 inside the RCA Dome? As someone who has watched 20 minutes of combine coverage live, I can tell you that if you’re not watching it, you’re not missing a thing. The stuff is really dry. Think one of those woodworking shows on PBS on Sunday mornings. It’s awful to watch.
So if you’re expecting takes and opinions on what happens in Indianapolis this week, you may want to go elsewhere. Fanhouse is doing great things with their combine coverage.
