Questions about combine … Interesting that at a time when the NFL is trying to make the annual scouting combine, which is just getting underway in Indianapolis as we speak, another ‘event’ on the league’s off-season calendar, there seem to be a bit of a growing chorus questioning various aspects of the ‘event.’ NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, for example, actually called for the end of the combine earlier this month saying that the medical testing was an infringement of the players’ health privacy rights. Smith also noted that much of the testing is rather redundant given that teams have so much tape on the vast majority of players that they already no how fast and/or athletic they are.
Then in the last few days there have been multiple reports that some teams will not be sending their coaching staffs to the combine this year. Green Bay, for example, has opted to keep its coaches home from the combine, although G.M. Brian Gutekunst and a full contingent of Packers’ scouts and other personnel staff will be in Indianapolis this week. The feeling seems to be that there just isn’t enough of value for coaches to see at the combine given that everything there is taped or documented in some fashion, while the players are now so prepared by their agents that their interviews are pretty much canned. Of course, there have always been questions about the combine; the weigh-in/measurement sessions are somewhat of a meat market that, given the fact that a significant majority of the players are black, does indeed harken back to a darker time in American history, while the physical drills are more track meet than an actual football. whether this becomes a trend is still to be seen, but it is certainly something worth watching. Stay tuned!
