NFL Combine vs. NFL Draft: Which Event Would You Rather See in Person?

Every week, we'll play a little game called Pick Any Two, where I offer you three horrible choices for a given topic and you'll have to pick not one, but two of them, or simply discard one. This week, we're discussing the value of attending events during the NFL offseason, and your choices are going to the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, attending the NFL Draft in New York City or staying in front of your TV at home. Off we go.

With regard to the manner in which pro football allocates talent to its 32 teams, the NFL is what it is. When you or I apply for a job, neither of us would expect a call two months later with the voice on the other end bellowing, "You're going to Phoenix. You're gonna love it there." Maybe we would, but that isn't the point. Jobs in the NFL are scarce, and so those aspiring members of its potential workforce are happy to play anywhere. With that in mind, the league handles its personnel acquisition a little differently than most companies.

The unintended repercussion here is that the acts of evaluating and selecting employees have become televised events, and well-received ones at that. The NFL's scouting combine and college player draft pull in big TV numbers on par with other sporting events on the calendar. And even now, just three weekends removed from the Super Bowl, we as a football-starved people are happy to tune in. The question I would pose today is this: would you be compelled to attend either (or both) of these events in person?

You would never walk into a human resources office and be told, "so the job interview is in Indianapolis," because that would be the end of the conversation for a lot of folks. Not the NFL or its teams, who are so full of themselves that they're beyond getting off on putting their applicants through such a rigorous process.

More than 300 ex-collegians will be photographed in their shorts, and then they will run and jump and catch balls under the watchful eyes of the 32 teams' talent evaluators, with the lion's share of their respective lifetime incomes riding in the balance. Is there any other weekend when individuals' potential incomes so rapidly fluctuate? I can't think of one. 

That drama is a large component of what turns such a routine-looking event into good television, and apparently good theater as well, since this is the first weekend the combine will be opening its doors to fans at the event. My well-documented thoughts on the host city notwithstanding, seeing the combine in person is a non-starter for me. Like most of the NFL's competitive products, that experience is better absorbed in 1080p.

Conversely, visiting the league's actual draft site can be one of many stops in a given New York trip. That is, if you enjoy unnavigable traffic, six-foot piles of garbage on the street and general filth permeating the Manhattan area. And you'll probably wait in line for a couple hours to get into Radio City Music Hall, and even then you'll be sitting with maniacal NFL fans. It's just like an actual game, but with, you know, no game.

The dichotomy of the two sites seems appropriate. Only when one toils away in the obscurity akin to the empty stadium can one taste the bright lights and big rewards of The Big Time. Sure, Andrew Luck will stroll effortlessly onto that stage, but just as that walk begins a journey into professional football, it's also the culmination of tens of thousands of hours of hard work that we never saw. Walking onto that stage is an acceptance of glory that wasn't earned for a player's achievements in the pro game, but it has been nonetheless earned.

But it's not just glory for those athletes who deserve those plaudits (and those contracts), but the teams and their fans share in that as well. The draft is Christmas morning for NFL fans, and oddly enough those players selected are not only reaping rewards of a quality college career, they themselves are the awards.

That said, I still wouldn't watch either event on TV. But if I had to jaunt out of my ivory tower on Mt. Punte, I would visit the combine. Watching a guy sprint 40 yards is always more fun than watching him walk the same distance, and even though the end of the sprint may not be punctuated with a No. 1 jersey and a handshake from the commissioner, those rewards will be waiting for 32 players in just a couple short months. If you wanted to see someone in a suit, you could just go back to a normal job.