I think the NFL Combine is stupid, often counterproductive and almost always degrading. It should take place in Rome's Colosseum. You half expect these football prospects, clad in modern loincloths, to say, “I'm Spartacus!” “No, I'm Spartacus.” “No, I'm Spartacus!” And then run like gladiators.
It is the most absurd reality TV show, and I put reality TV up there with getting shingles.
So, naturally, I can't help watching this thing that, in recent years, has taken on a life of its own. I don't see very much, but enough, maybe because the combine is serious to scouts, GMs, coaches, players and Indianapolis hotel and restaurant operators. Not to mention the Fourth Estate, of which I proudly am a member.
Do you realize the NFL credentialed some 540 media for this thing, which just took place in Indy, home of other well-oiled machines? And the press can't even get inside the RCA Dome to watch the players run their phony 40s, burst around cones and test their vertical leaps. Groups get in to watch receivers drop passes. That's it.
But it has become a place to hang out in hotel lobbies, hob-nob with the coaches, players and agents, meet with some old cronies and pick up some new contacts. And, in my business, I consider that important – certainly enough to be there.
“I think the combine is great,” Chargers GM A.J. Smith says. Of course he does, although he pays little attention to what's going on inside the RCA Dome. It gets him out of the office, and he can talk to doctors and trainers to check on the future of these athletes, who are poked and prodded like slaughterhouse cattle.
I get the NFL Network, which goes wire-to-wire with the combine, and it does a fair and unbiased job covering League matters. It doesn't shrink from controversial issues. To the NFL's credit, it's not edited in Cuba.
But it's fun to see the analysts, including former NFL speedsters and future Hall of Famers, such as Rod Woodson and Marshall Faulk, talk about these 40 times and all that. Woodson, once a world-class hurdler, doesn't even laugh when the 40 times are called out.
I laugh until I cry.
East Carolina running back Chris Johnson – heard of him? – ran the fastest combine 40 – 4.24 seconds. Interesting, in that no one in history has run a legitimate 4.24. He now shares the combine record with legendary Rondel Melendez, an Eastern Kentucky receiver who set the record in 1999. Melendez is not a part of my history.
As a prep, Johnson covered 100 meters in 10.62, so I stand corrected. That easily converts to a 4.24. If this world's fastest human has run track since, I can't find a mention.
Interesting. No one plays football at the combine, which wouldn't be in anyone's best interests, in that these guys will be playing football. Did you know Deion Sanders – Deion was fast – once, when he was at Florida State, covered 40 yards in 4.57 running backward. Backward?
Did you know Jerry Rice ran a 4.7, probably legit. Did you ever see him get caught from behind by one of these 4.3 DB sprinters? Marcus Allen probably had a similar time. The knock on him was he wasn't fast enough to play in the NFL. Good enough for the Hall of Fame.
Really, now. Let's do away with the silliness. I'm not saying numbers can't be important. They eventually could separate a prospect from a suspect. But, can you play the game or not? Bob Hayes, remember (how, by the way, is this guy not in the Hall? He changed the game), was a football player first, a sprinter second.
Smith admits he doesn't go to the combine to watch players run around cones. His primary concern is medical reports provided by Chargers doctors and trainers. Are these guys going to be ready to play? Are they going to have future physical problems?
“There are some good players who are so beat up,” he says, “we'd probably pass on them. There are few players who are clean (of injuries), except maybe a punter and kicker.”
That's what matters. He has tape of these kids playing football. He knows the difference between fast and football-fast (Rice and Allen were football-fast).
“Major mistakes have been made at the combine,” Smith says. “There are some really good football players who don't have the numbers. Some guys who aren't very good have the numbers, so you have to be careful. But, if the kid can play and you say you don't like his combine numbers, it can hurt him.
“I'm more impressed with football players with great qualities. But, numbers can't be dramatically low. If I have a football player whose numbers are good enough, let me have him for a year. It will be amazing. But, if you weren't good in high school and you weren't good in college and you give me some big combine numbers, I don't have the time. You're going to cost me my job.”
Finding football players isn't that hard. Watch them play. Cones and stopwatches do not block and tackle.
Nick Canepa: (619) 293-1397; nick.canepa@uniontrib.com
