A few weeks ago I was invited by Mr. Matt Toy to attend Combine Night at D1 Sports Training in Cool Springs. He found out about my blog and invited me to come with a "Press Pass." That meant I got to come right down on the field and meet the players. About 16 college football players have been training at D1 for the past few weeks to get ready for the NFL Combine that began this weekend in Indiannaopolis. The NFL combine is where players who have declared for the draft show off their skills in front of scouts from every NFL team. The drills measure vertical leap, broad jump, strength in the weight room, speed in the 40 yard dash, agility, and specialized drills for certain positions like kicking, catching or passing accuracy.
This photo is Jason Jones, DE of Eastern Michigan Univ. doing the vertical leap. Chris is 6'5'' 262 pounds. In 2007 he was voted EMU's MVP and was first-team All-Mid-American Conference in 2007.
The NFL combine is very important. A player can improve or hurt his draft position by how he performs against others at his same position. There's lots of pressure because all the NFL scouts are watching and taking notes.After the players did their practice drills, I got to meet and interview 4 of them. That was very cool. I have most of them on my draft board. It was cool to meet and talk with players that I've watched on TV and read about. In my next few entries I'll show you the pictures and interviews. They were pretty busy so the interviews are short.
