The NFL combine is a favorite target of the Blob's lampooning, in part because it's a full-on neuroses-fest in which scouts and team officials obsess over how fast an O-lineman can run farther than he'll ever have to in a game, and how a prospect reacts to bizarre questions about his mother.
Turns out the NFL itself has finally noticed how absurd it is, too.
The Shield gets a lot of stuff wrong, but the other day it got something right, rolling out sweeping new rules for the combine that, among other things, eliminates the ridiculous Wonderlic test and threatens teams with the loss of draft picks if they ask inappropriate questions in evaluating prospects.
Of the latter, the most famous examples involve the Miami Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons. Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland once asked Dez Bryant if his mother was a prostitute; a Falcons assistant coach once asked defensive back Eli Apple if he was gay.
Neither question had a lick to do with how well Bryant or Apple could play football. Rather, they were deliberately designed to provoke a response -- and, here in Blob World, should have.
One response would have had Bryant asking Ireland which street his mom was working these days, or perhaps Ireland winding up with some facial rearrangement.
The other would have had Apple responding, "Why, are you asking me out?"
The NFL finally has put the kibosh on that nonsense. Ditto the Wonderlic test -- which was designed to see how well prospective quarterbacks could think on their feet, but which became a running joke when it was revealed how low many of the league's greatest quarterbacks scored on it.
So that's gone, too. Which means, although we don't often get to say it:
Way to go, NFL.
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