By Frank Pingue
Feb 26 (Reuters) - Over the next four days in Indianapolis, 319 elite prospects will sprint, jump, lift weights and field bizarre questions at the NFL Scouting Combine, a televised audition before league decision-makers and a media throng rivaled only by the Super Bowl.
It just may be the most unforgiving job interview in sports.
Before top draft-eligible college players even get a chance to showcase their talents to all 32 NFL clubs through a variety of drills, they are measured and
weighed, the latter while wearing nothing more than a pair of shorts, and undergo a battery of medical exams as doctors and trainers seek to assess injury risk.
"The joke is that if you are not injured before you come to the combine you might well be after 15 doctors pull on your limbs," famed U.S. sports agent Leigh Steinberg, best known as the inspiration for Tom Cruise's character in the film "Jerry Maguire", told Reuters.
PIVOTAL STEP IN JOURNEY TO NFL
The combine is a pivotal step in the journey from amateur athlete to professional, providing NFL teams with one of the best opportunities to evaluate prospects prior to the April 23-25 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh where the first overall pick could sign a life-changing four-year contract in the $50 million range.
And so this week the players will try to boost their draft stock with strong results in a variety of tests, including the 40-yard dash that is the marquee event of the week as prospects sprint at top speed with their future careers and earnings hanging in the balance.
Among the other events are vertical leaps, broad jumps, 225-pound bench press and position-specific drills.
"The testables are relied on to assess players, even though they don't always correlate with game performance," said Steinberg, who estimates he has been to about 40 combines in his career.
"With all the money that's spent on this astounding event, it doesn't reliably predict on-field performance as much as people think."
BRADY UNDERWHELMED IN 2000 COMBINE
One prime example of that resurfaces every February when a photo from the 2000 NFL Scouting Combine circulates online. It features an expressionless Tom Brady, looking nothing like the seven-time Super Bowl champion he would become, standing in nothing more than a loose pair of shorts beside an easel with his name on it.
"Did they stop taking these photos after mine?" Brady once joked on Instagram along with two laughing emojis.
Brady had an underwhelming combine and less than two months later was selected 199th overall by the New England Patriots in the sixth round, but despite starting his career as a backup he enjoyed a decorated 23-year career and is widely considered the greatest quarterback of all time.
BIZARRE QUESTIONS THE NORM
Players at this week's combine will also have meetings with teams where bizarre questions are the norm and one wrong answer can potentially tank your draft stock.
"One time a player said one of the questions he was asked was: 'Are you red or are you blue?' Another one was: 'Are you a dog or are you a cat?'" said Steinberg, who has represented the first overall NFL Draft pick eight times.
Despite all the attention on the field, some of the most important conversations at this week's combine won't happen on the field but rather in nearby bars, inside dark steakhouses and in passing whispers between scouts and agents.
"The action is taking place ... in hotel bars and hotel lobbies, there's a high degree of schmoozing going on," said Steinberg, whose book "The Comeback: A Playbook for Turning Life's Setbacks into Victories" is being released on March 24.
"And agents are trying to figure out from interacting with teams who is interested in a draftee, who has interest and to try to assess that."
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
