Flipping around the channels this weekend, I came across something a little bit disturbing.  Did you know that you can watch the mind-numbing boringness that is the NFL Combine?  This was news to me, so I had to see what this business was all about.

But even though the most interesting part was seeing a few big name college quarterbacks tossing deep passes to guys who didn’t have enough speed to get under the ball, I couldn’t seem to turn away.  I found myself suddenly needing to know if Wisconsin quarterback Scott Tolzien’s 9’8” broad jump would be enough to move him up to potentially get drafted as early as the fifth round.

Now that I look back, I wonder why measuring a quarterback’s broad jumping ability even matters.  Because every so often you see a quarterback drop back in the pocket only to stand flat-footed and then suddenly need to jump 9-10 feet forward to escape a rushing defensive end. 

Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett is expected to be the first quarterback taken in the draft.  If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have bothered even showing up.  The guy skips out on the 40-yard dash, three-cone drill and 20-yard shuttle only to finish dead last in the vertical and broad jump.  Way to pick your spots, bro. 

Too bad King Kong Bundy wasn’t trying to break out of the WWE to play quarterback or else you may have squeaked into that second to last spot. Of course if you’re the guy who beats Bundy, you know he’s going to drop an Atlantic City Avalanche on you and want the ref to go all the way to a five-count pin.

So once the NFL Network finally broke to commercial, I managed to come out of whatever spell this program put me under.  As boring as it was, at least it was better than this year’s Pro Bowl. How does the NFL make you feel like you have to watch everything on television that bears its shield?  I guess if you can make the NFL Draft a watchable event, then you know you have a special brand and may as well move on to find more moments to broadcast.

After this blog, I’ll be dropping a note to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to see if we can get cameras in the room where the guys are taking the Wonderlic test.  It always seems to be newsworthy for the guy who gets a perfect or near-perfect score, but the best part is finding out who scored the worst.  Even better, get an over-the-shoulder shot of the guy grading the exam with a split screen on the face of the player hoping he doesn’t go sub-Vince Young.

I sure hope that Pete Carroll and John Schneider are breaking down college game tape of these guys rather than paying attention to the scores that came out of a weekend full of pure NFL excitement.