NFL Combine Running Thread

Hope that this is not a DB. Checked and did not see a thread for this, ect ect.

Now that Cablevision has added the NFL Network I am excited to watch even if I have to listen to Mike Mayock.

In the format they are televising in some ways it seems like it could be more entertaining than some of the Olympic prelims.

 

Because of my unhealthy obsession with the Bears, I am overly excited about watching Saturday's coverage of offensive lineman and tight end drills.

 

Tyler Eifert would look good in a Bears uniform.

 

Seemed like a layup for NFL Network to air all the GM/coach interviews yesterday live, but nope. Instead we get a cavalcade of talking heads.

Then today, at this very moment in fact, offensive linemen are on the bench press... and the talking heads continue.

Awful.

 

I thought that the combine did not start until tomorrow.

 

Are we going to have a Combine Throwing thread too?

 

It started yesterday, but the "on the field" action heats up tomorrow.

 

Based on what Rexy said yesterday, you know they're going to do everything they can to deal Revis.

Meanwhile, the 49ers are acting like it's possible that they're going to keep Alex Smith and the Vikings are saying they are not interested in dealing Harvin... It could be true, but I love how places act like you can believe a single word a coach or GM says at the combine...

 

it's amazing it took the media this long to grasp what an off-season bonanza covering the combine is. i first went in '97 and was at every one through '02 and i din't think the league ever had to dole out more than maybe 75 credentials. this was pre-nfl network so tv largely ignored it, as did most of the major market paoers. cincy and chicago and green bay and other midwest papers were represented 'cause it's a geographically desirable event (within driving distance) but most papers and most 'nfl reporters' pooh-poohed its significance.

and the league did little to organize any pressers for the players, coaches or gm's -- which made it great for those of us willing go stand around the hotel lobby where the teams interviewed the players -- you just had the hustle and keep your eyes open to intercept, say, bill belichick or tony dungy walking through to intercept them, introduce yourself and spend a few minutes talking to them. a great way for a national nfl writer to become recognizable to the ron wolfs and bill polians of the league, which would always pay off by increasng the chances they'd return your phone calls year round. and you'd get to interview a peyton manning by getting one of the few nfl p.r. guys around to arrnge a mini-gangbang outside the hotel's coffee shop.

it was truly a hidden gem of an nfl event to cover, as everyone finally woke up to about 10 years ago... but it ruined it for those of us aware of its usefullness previously. now every freakin' interview is an orchestrated event. one more nfl controlled event -- the beauty of covering the combine back in the day was that the more enterprising reporters were rewarded; now even the laziest, most clueless scribes have their butts covered.

it ruined the combine for me, so it's not among the events i miss most now that i'm a civilian. i get to be a bitter old geezer of a hack telling young scribes how much better it was back in the day, just like training camps were o much cooler to cover -- in the '80s you would still interview players in their DORM ROOMS, often by by yourself or with one or two others. it was every nan for yourself during the lunch break between two-a-day practices.today's reporters look at you in amazement when you tell 'em about all the time you could spend developing a rapport with players then... nowm not so much.

between stuff like this, and free agency, when player contracts exploded to further divide players from the media -- they used to 'need' us much more than they do now -- yeah, i'm a true bitter former hack grateful to be an nfl beat writer for a paper 'back in the day' as opposed to now....

end of rant. carry on...

 

John Dorsey was saying Friday Kansas City will take the best player available. It's early, I know, and smoke screens are everywhere but it doesn't sound like the Chiefs really know what they are going to do.

 

Nothing like watching offensive linemen broad jump.

 

I still don't know why they don't make these players do the drills in full gear.