NFL Combine 2012: 3 Reasons Workout Is Horrible Measure of NFL Success

The NFL combine will fire up a nation that is starved for football action. They are so hungry that they will feast on a bunch of drills and exercises. 

I count myself among the millions of nerds that will sit and watch hours of combine coverage, but I don't have to like what is mandated. We write what the nation cares about. It's why Skip Bayless only knows two words right now, and they are Tim Tebow. 

Such is the case with the NFL combine. We sit, watch and write because this nation has lost its mind for football. So much so that a combine designed for scouts becomes a must-see event. Imagine watching the MLB or NBA equivalent for a few days in a row, and you might laugh your head clean off your neck. 

Well, here we are to discuss what is wrong with the combine. 

Please don't think that I find the few days of running and jumping totally useless. It's just overblown and a over-hyped mess. You know, like everything else we do in the sports world. 

1. 40-yard dash: There is no bigger event in the few days at the combine and no worse measure of future success. 

We pile up a bunch of players to run 40 yards when really only a select number of positions will ever be needed to run that far. The fact is most players that land in the upper echelon of times have already been marked as a speedster. 

Guys go to various trainers and schools to shave milliseconds off their 40-yard time, all with techniques that will never matter at the next level. This is an exciting event that will hardly tell me who will create vital separation from corners or run down star receivers. 

2. JaMarcus Russell: There are a few players that delight at the combine and fail in the league, but there is none more grandiose than JaMarcus Russell. 

The NFL is far more than a series of events where balls are thrown, and vertical leaps are measured. Russell stood out as an amazing athlete that would be a no-brainer as a first-round pick. 

NFL guru John Clayton even chimed in with an exuberant impression of Russell back in 2007. 

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This was supposed to be Brady Quinn's draft, but JaMarcus Russell may have stolen it. Other than maybe Daunte Culpepper, the NFL hasn't seen a quarterback with Russell's size.

He checked into the Indianapolis scouting combine at 6-5½ and weighed 265 pounds. Russell, though he looked a little flabby around the mid-section at his weigh-in, is the biggest thing in this upcoming draft and might end up going to the Raiders with the first pick.

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Russell didn't end up throwing but allowed his size and form to delight the scouts at the combine. The athletes are poked and prodded like the dogs at the Wesminster show, and the results are as exact. 

3. Howie Long: Okay, I don't mean Howie Long's career or where he went in the draft, rather the thoughts he has on the combine that I agree with. 

In a USA Today report last year, Long is quoted as calling out the combine as a "beauty pageant."

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I think it's kind of turned into a beauty pageant. Bring me a guy who bench presses 500 pounds and I'll throw him on the floor. The bench press doesn't correlate to the NFL.

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The same could be said about drills like "The Gauntlet" where receivers run the length of the field catching balls. They come at such a high rate that most balls are caught and dropped before an actual possession takes place. It's a wonder how useful a drill like that could be. 

Yet, we all watch because just a couple weeks removed from the season has us starved for football. That doens't make it right though. 

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