NFL Combine a TV spectacle, moneymaker; value under scrutiny...

[DGUtley]

NFL Combine a TV spectacle, moneymaker; value under scrutiny...

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The NFL combine is winding down and it’s clear the annual scouting event that’s evolved into a made-for-TV spectacle continues to be a required stop on the road to a pro football career amid concerns it can be a demeaning process with diminishing value.

The combine, which launched in 1982 mainly to bring prospects to one location so teams could gather medical information, now unofficially kicks off the upcoming NFL season and puts football back on center stage just weeks after the Super Bowl. The event is a moneymaking machine for the league, another interview/audition for players and a job fair for unemployed coaches. But opinions vary on how necessary it is today.

NFL Players’ Association executive director DeMaurice Smith strongly opposes the combine because he views it as intrusive and says it’s intended to point out negatives about prospects.

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[stephenpe]

We are all agog about Anthony Richardson setting records on some of the tests. They certainly are making money off of it.

and where else where you see agog used again this year..........

[DGUtley]

We are all agog about Anthony Richardson setting records on some of the tests. They certainly are making money off of it. and where else where you see agog used again this year..........

That's a bunch of jiggery-pokery that could lead to an argle-bargle.

[carolina73]

The combine is a good idea. It allows some players to show their as natural athletic ability. Certain characteristics are more important for certain positions. Who care how high the Left Guard can jump?
But it still does not show the brain and instint part of the game.

Twenty years ago, the player who would go on to become the greatest quarterback of all time made his Hall of Fame-caliber future evident with an NFL Combine performance for the ages.

This is what every NFL team not named the Patriots wishes it could say about its glimpse of Tom Brady a couple months before the 2000 NFL Draft.

MORE: Why Brady is the NFL Athlete of the Decade

We all know by now the opposite occurred. Thanks in part to Brady's Combine showing being received as average at best, nobody saw a record six Super Bowl rings in his future. Brady famously slipped to the Patriots in the sixth round of the draft, at No. 199 overall. Only one of the six QBs picked ahead of the Michigan product (Marc Bulger, No. 168 by Saints) appeared in a Pro Bowl.

Brady's story now serves as an annual reminder to NFL Draft prospects who don't test off the charts that their potential is not defined by a 40-yard dash, a vertical leap, a Wonderlic test score or anything else from the Combine.

And yes, provided the context of the 42-year-old's unprecedented success in the NFL, his Combine performance 20 years ago can be viewed as a comedic masterpiece.

Below are the highlights (if one can call them that) and stats from Brady's notoriously ho-hum workout in Indianapolis.

[Tahuyaman]

Many top rated players are opting out of the scouting combine. Instead they conduct a work-out at their home college facility for a selected group of scouts.

The combine is becoming more of a venue for lesser known players to demonstrate a specific skill, like unusual speed, quickness or strength.