This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Robert Zeglinski.
It’s that time of year, folks. The 2023 NFL Scouting Combine is here.
Some of the top prospects in the annual NFL Draft will spend their time in Indianapolis this week. First, they’ll be grilled about their football acumen (and potentially get asked weird questions by Football Guys with no boundaries).
Later in the week, while wearing shorts and performance t-shirts, they’ll head to the field to run really fast, run around some cones, and convince franchises they’re worthy of an investment. All of this will, as usual, and for some reason, be televised.
And, despite the combine’s apparent importance to the NFL Draft (I’m not entirely convinced), I am here for a valuable public service announcement:
You don’t have to watch any of it. Not a minute of your hard-earned free time (or cruising around the internet at work) has to be spent on this snoozefest masquerading as Football Content.
Contrary to what the NFL wants us to think, you don’t have to spend a solitary second watching future pro football players not play football. I’m aware the league seemingly always wants to expand its utter vise grip on the calendar and shoehorn in some NFL-related event every month.
But eventually, we need to set some boundaries, people.
The NFL might be slowly piecing together an ever-saturated offseason that is Vital and Valuable every step of the way, but you don’t have to buy what it sells. Because that’s simply not true.
I know we all love football here. We appreciate the excitement and thrill of an unpredictable game featuring some of the best athletes in the world. And at least with free agency and the draft, you can sell yourself on your team’s “hope” and the promise of a new year with new players.
In a team-building way, that is football now. I get it. I do.
But the combine isn’t even football!
You’re telling me some top QB prospects might throw at this year’s edition? Wow. Breathtaking. I need a minute to get some popcorn.
They measure prospects’ hand sizes. Hand sizes. Don’t lie: is something this silly you’re really thinking about when watching Patrick Mahomes launch a perfect bomb downfield to his receiver?
No. Yawn.
They gush about burners with the fastest 40-yard dash times. Is this relevant to watching a skill player make an incredible run or catch downfield?
Absolutely not. I need more coffee.
They spotlight the guys who can hit the highest markers on a measuring stick. I don’t know about you, but I’m not thinking of Justin Jefferson’s vertical at the combine when I see him sky for his latest act of wizardry. I’m thinking, “wow, what a ridiculous catch.”
Because I’m a man of principles, I refuse to even look up what Jefferson’s vertical was now that I bring it up. After all, we have to stand for something.
So when this weekend creeps up, and you see teasers for the running backs, linemen, or whoever is doing their drills, resist the urge. Don’t give in to the suits telling you the combine is something you have to sit down on the couch to watch.
They’re wrong. So, so wrong.
We love football. We don’t have to love the forgettable parts that have nothing to do with the on-field action.
Quick hits: Max Scherzer’s pitch clock strategy … bad news for the Lakers … and more.
- Max Scherzer’s creative way of using the MLB’s pitch clock is just an awful development for hitters.
- LeBron James’ NSFW Instagram post about an injury is bad news for the Lakers.
- Zendaya was among the many stars who crushed it on the SAG Awards red carpet.
- Charles Barkley threw out some hot takes again. The analyst had Kevin Durant calling him out for one, and he also said Victor Wembanyama was overrated.