“You Can Fall In Love And Get Your Heart Broken”
February 20th, 2021
Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians.
For some folks, February means Valentine’s Day, one of the greatest marketing scams ever devised.
For football people, February is combine month. For the first winter since the combine’s embryonic stages when it was first held in Tampa in 1982, it will not happen this year.
The combine has grown into sort of a winter festival of football in Indianapolis, where the two worlds of college and NFL football people unite for a week’s long trek to the usually frosty Midwest. The combine even has its own TV show, which really isn’t the combine at all in many respects.
This year, however, there will be no combine, thanks to The Sickness. And when it comes to finding draft prospects, Bucco Bruce Arians won’t miss the combine that much (though he admitted this week he will miss the attention that is heaped on a Super Bowl-winning coach by fellow NFL coaches).
So why is that? Arians said if evaluators don’t lean heavily on game tape, they will eventually get heartbroken by the combine.
“For me, it has always been, what’s on tape,” Arians said earlier this week. “Now let’s do the background on the person [after watching tape]. You go to the combine, you can fall in love with those guys in shorts. They run a 4.3. Then you look at the film and go, ‘They don’t run for 4.3. Not when he is playing.’ And the guy who ran a 4.6, he’s the fastest guy on the field.
“So the tape don’t lie. And you can fall in love and get your heartbroken at the combine.”
Joe has long called the combine, the TV show, a “glorified indoor track meet.” It’s virtually worthless when determining if a guy can play football. Or as Warren Sapp famously said, “You don’t pump weights on the 50-yard line.”
Arians sort of seems to agree with Joe when he called the combine TV show “track drills.” He did add he doesn’t mind watching the linemen do the drills as you get an idea of how athletic they may be.
Joe will miss going to Indianapolis, even in the dark of a horrible winter this season. The TV show? Eh, Joe will go back to binging “Combat.”
February 20th, 2021 at 12:13 am
BA’s old school ways don’t seem so outdated/out of touch now. He had “All The Right Moves” in 2020 not unlike the 80’s football movie.
February 20th, 2021 at 4:21 am
People have been saying this about the combine since it’s inception. Some of these guys are both excellent track stars and football players. Metcalf might have fallen a few rounds has he not showed out so much. That’s got to burn some of the scouts when they got a higher grade on a player that shows up strong at the combine exposing their hidden gem. I love watching it because you get to see and know the players. It makes the draft that much more fun.
February 20th, 2021 at 5:40 am
Advertisers love this crap.
February 20th, 2021 at 6:09 am
“You go to the combine, you can fall in love with those guys in shorts.”
Joe, you like to read between the lines…….
February 20th, 2021 at 6:21 am
No, you don’t pump weights on the 50 yard line. But when you come in and test positive for weed at a time when that is frowned upon, you send the wrong message. Look at the Seattle WR who showed up in extraordinary condition and improved his lot.
The Combine is a job interview. Take it seriously or cost yourself money.
February 20th, 2021 at 7:27 am
We need to use picks to trade up and get a couple of starters…..rely on scouts to find players with special teams skills.
February 20th, 2021 at 8:15 am
“Combat” binging?? Don’t forget the Rat Patrol too!
February 20th, 2021 at 8:21 am
The combine’s value is to the NFL brand….its just one more way the NFL stays relevant during the offseason and why they are the #1 sport in America. Turning the tape on doesn’t prove to be any more valuable. Winston was turnover prone in college, had a long wind up and poor ball placement……yet we drafted him #1. The tape is equally deceiving if the prospect’s team is loaded with superior talent to their competition which is often the case in college.
February 20th, 2021 at 9:21 am
I’m pretty sure Wirfs had some great tape, but the combine didn’t hurt his rise to a top four tackle, I’m just glad the other teams didn’t think much of all he did at the combine, 😉 worked out perfectly
February 20th, 2021 at 10:52 am
The problem in evaluating draft picks is that you have frauds like Mel Kiper who is adored as an expert and is wrong on a players half the time and they bring him back every year. In my opinion, Mike Mayock was the best at evaluating college talent.
Thats why I was pulling for BA to win th SB because he is an old fashioned, hard nosed, no nonsense coach. He doesn’t care if its Tom Brady, Big Ben or Dan Marino. No coddling of these so called super stars…..
February 20th, 2021 at 11:39 am
Most of the so called experts are bad evaluaters. Most of us could evaluate the draft as good if not better than the so called experts. But I do agree that Mayock was one of the best.
February 20th, 2021 at 3:37 pm
Dear Joseph, Bruce would gladly coddle Tom Brady, Tom himself told Bruce to get after him after games. Tom brought you guys a Superbowl be happy.
February 21st, 2021 at 3:21 pm
You don’t pump weights at the 50 yard line. True, but being able to rep 225 shows muscle endurance which can only be made in the weight room which shows a player’s dedication. If a player shows poor then it raises red flags about his dedication to his sport and improving.
February 21st, 2021 at 5:43 pm
Sure. Wasn’t there someone with the last name “Sapp” the Bucs tried out? He was some champion weightlifter or something. Don’t ever recall him playing in a regular season game.
At the end of the day, it’s about production. Can the guy produce on the football field? Bench pressing may look nice but that has nothing to do with shedding blocks and putting yourself in position to make plays.
What does the tape tell you, not weights on a bar?
February 22nd, 2021 at 9:42 am
Vic Morrow is no Daniel Jeremiah!