The Combine is Awesome

"...life's this game of inches...so is football...because, in either game,life or football,the margin for error is so small, i mean, one half a step too late, or too early, and you don't quite make it, one half second too slow, too fast, you don't quite catch it, the inches we need are everywhere around us...they're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone else around us, to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch...because we know,when we add up all those inches,that's gonna make the fucking difference, between winning and losing! Between living and dying!"

- Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday

That is why the combine is awesome. Football is a game of inches. Maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal that a guy didn't run a sub 4.4 40 dash, or couldn't bench 225 35 times, or have a vert over 35'', but it certainly does matter. No, the players aren't wearing pads or helmets and the 40 doesn't always translate into game speed, but all of those inches add up.

January 10, 1982...NFC Championship Game...49ers vs Cowboys. The call is Red Right Tight - Sprint Right Option. Joe Montana avoids a sack and throws a high, floating pass towards the back of the endzone. Dwight Clark jumps up and just manages to get his fingertips on the ball and brings it in for for the game winning score. What if he jumped an inch less than he did? What if Montana's pass was an inch too high?

Maybe Titans WR Kevin Dyson would have been able to get past Rams LB Mike Jones if he was 0.10 of a second faster.


Being a step faster matters. Ask Devin Hester. Being able to shed a block and blow up a play in the backfield matters. Ask Pat Williams. Being able to push the pile, keep your feet pumping, and make yards after contact - fight for that extra yard matters. Ask Adrian Peterson.

Combine stats aren't the be-all and end-all in determining which players are going to be studs and which ones are going to be busts. However, they certainly do show which players have the best chance to be successful in a league where everyone is fast, strong, agile, and hostile. And that is the reason why NFL front offices are willing to pay millions upon millions of extra dollars to guys who do run a 4.33 and not a 4.67, who can bench 225 lbs 34 times, instead of just 27, and do have 40'' verticals, instead of only 38''.

It's a game of inches.