The NFL Combine - speed dating for the pigskin set

For the first time in my life, I watched nearly wall-to-wall coverage of the NFL Combine on Saturday (for those that have a life and were out and about this weekend, check out our combine recap for details). I watched lineman squat, bench press, run into other large men holding pads. I saw tight ends being timed in the 40 and I heard countless glowing comments, many of which would fit on a movie poster (you will not see a pass rusher perform a better shuttle run this season!  You will fall in love with his agility on the cone drill!") about size, physique and technique.

Kudos to the NFL for turning what historically was non-event for the masses into must-see-TV for all of us tackling dummies. The combine fills in the televised gap between the Super Bowl and the NFL draft and keeps the league in the sports section and on SportsCenter, allowing fans to get a non-helmet and pads look at the well-known and unheralded prospects.

I keep waiting for the advent of "NFL Midnight Madness - Free Agency". Heck, you know the start of free agency would be on the NFL Network if they could work out the details on "agent cam".  Watching the phones light up at the stroke of midnight and seeing all the Jerry Maguires and their minions look like a batch of operators taking orders for "As seen on TV" products: sign Albert Haynesworth and we'll throw in a box of ginzu knives. "He" will shred offensive lineman on his way to the ball carrier and "it" will slice up a steak or a soda can with ease and you can have it all for the low low price of $40 million over four years with $20 million guaranteed! Hearing how Drew Rosenhaus attempts to con some team into believing that Chad Johnson just needs a "change of scenery" might make you feel dirty, but you would be riveted all the same.

So yes, the combine, like the draft itself, has some viewing value for those of us that simply can't get enough of the National Football League. Yet what I am really thinking about as I watch the poking and the prodding is how I so hope that my team is not one of the factions that fall in or out of love based solely on height, weight and one day's timed sprint.

Everyone loves to hear that the linebacker their team drafted is a "monster who can bench press 325 pounds 67 times while running a 4.5 40 or that their new wide receiver has a standing broad jump that would make Superman envious. Of course, that does not speak to whether the defender can make a textbook tackle or if the receiver can consistently catch. Hence, you never, ever want to find out that the combine is the reason your team ended up taking said player over another prospect.

These players have enough game and highlight reels to keep all the front office folk in movie-watching mode for weeks on end (probably more entertaining than most of the Oscar-nominated flicks I did not bother seeing). Teams have scouts covering all the country like pollsters around election time, going state by state, stadium by stadium.

As a fan, I want my team to draft Player X because of how he performed on the field, not because of what his time was in front of the stopwatch syndicate. Falling in love happens, but do it because of the way the quarterback completed a pass to his fourth option against zone coverage with a pass rusher bearing down on him and not because of the amount of zip he had on his throws throwing at a receiver in a drill that takes place with no defenders on the field.

I get that it is much easier officially to weigh and measure all these prospects at the same location and that the combine is just another in a series of opportunities for teams to gather information about the players that they plan to spend millions of dollars on. In the end, this time filler of an event is for the most part nothing but a quasi-physical exam that takes place in front of the football world and without a hospital gown (though all the players get a fancy workout top with their name on it) or curtain to hide behind.

My hope is that for my team, it is nothing more than that. I will not be happy if the first thing said by the front office brass during a breathy post-draft press conference is how impressed they are with "the way our new quarterback can throw the ball 70 yards from his knees...”