Texting is cool. When it first became mainstream in the last half decade, an appropriate question to ask a potential texting buddy was “Do you text?” Well the guys at ESPN working the NFL Draft certainly do. In the past five days, I have received eight text messages from ESPN on results from the NFL scouting combine.
These text messages contained 40-yard dash times and other physical measurements as opposed numbers that should matter such as yards-per-carry averages, sacks allowed or passer rating figures.
While I acknowledge the reason for the combine and the value gained by seeing these hundreds of athletes work out, it has evolved from a behind-the-scenes part of the league into an event put on the forefront, televised and analyzed beyond what is needed. Imagine if contract negotiations were televised and broken down by analysts and financial advisers and that is what the combine has become.
I used to be perfectly fine watching Mel Kiper, Jr. or Todd McShay tell me the week before the draft that Larry Johnson had a great workout during the combine or that Vince Young had trouble answering questions and scored low on the Wonderlic Test. I don’t need a nightly report from the combine, interviews throughout the week and text message updates when someone breaks 4.3 on the 40. Imagine if an NFL practice were covered like this. We’d have reports from Ed Werder that Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne were out of sync for two consecutive plays in practice. Then I’d have to get my iPhone out of my pocket to be told in a text message from Adam Schefter that Manning and Wayne were struggling.
Speaking of my iPhone, it had to come out of my pocket twice in one hour for the same player this week. USC safety Taylor Mays reportedly tied the combine record in the 40, running a 4.24. So on March 2nd at 9:18 AM, ESPN sent out a text that his unofficial time had tied the record according to “The Buzz,” one of the Worldwide Leader’s blogs from the combine. However, his official time ended up being a non-superhuman 4.43. The Buzz then corrected this on the live blog and ESPN sent out a second text at 10:17 AM, correcting the time to reflect the official reading. My disappointment was evident as I had to stop my Taylor-Mays-Broke-The-Forty-Yard-Dash-Record-Party which had been raging since 9:19. My guests were furious when I dismissed them, sent the strippers home and returned the keg to Lee’s Discount Liquor. It was the best 58 minutes of my life and now they are just as ordinary as any others.
How necessary are these updates? What good are they to the casual fan? Any fan? Do we actually think that University of Tennessee fans are sitting at home, watching the NFL Network to see Eric Berry wow scouts with a 43-inch vertical leap? Picture 20 inebriated Vols fans in a living room with high def TVs, beer, orange sweatshirts and plates of nachos. It’s not happening. Nobody cares.
What we should start doing is to hold viewing parties where a player does a workout in Indianapolis and then they cut to a packed stadium of fans from his university cheering when he has a sub-4.3 40-yard-dash time.
While the media saturation of the combine is objectionable, (I guess the NFL Network, which airs the combine, has to put some on their channel to avoid letting Rich Eisen talk anymore) what’s worse is that there is so much weight put on the workouts these athletes have when dictating where they are drafted.
I truly hope that guys like Trindon Holliday, whom ESPN texted me about when he ran the 40 in 4.27 seconds, doesn’t see his draft stock rise too much because of that performance. Holliday was LSU’s return specialist and had only 126 rushing yards last season but averaged over 18 yards per punt return and 24. 4 yards per kickoff returned. ESPN has him listed has the third best return specialist in the draft and Scouts, Inc. scores him as a prospect with a grade of 30 out of 100, (Ndamukong Suh is a 97).
When it comes to the NFL Draft, I like to track and watch it as much as anyone, but I want to recognize a player based on what he did in college not because McShay texted me that he ran a 4.34 in the 40. If Holliday gets drafted, I will only know him because of ESPN’s text and while that’s better than not knowing him at all, you won’t catch me jumping up at a draft party saying “Wow. Holliday had a heck of a 40 time. He should be a great fit for the Chiefs.”
This is part one of a two-part column. Check out part 2 HERE.
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