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Shutdown Corner - NFL

Shutdown Corner

Wed Feb 24 12:14pm EST

NFL Network will dedicate 30 hours to combine coverage

By MJD

Thirty hours. For 30 hours, the NFL Network will broadcast images of young men in unnecessarily tight clothing performing workout drills.

I don't blame them, and of course, I'm not saying they shouldn't. After all, they're the NFL Network, it's late February, and what else are they supposed to do? You can only air Super Bowl XXXIV highlights so many times.

Just hearing the words "30 hours of combine coverage" though, is a little jarring. Is that not a tad excessive? It's the combine, for goodness sake. When it's done, only a handful of guys will have affected their draft position significantly, and more often than not, even that movement will be a mistake on the part of scouts and talent evaluators.

And they're broadcasting 30 hours of this. In that, there will be ... what, maybe six or seven minutes of things that actually matter? Even NFL teams are admitting that they don't care a great deal about the combine. Never let it be said that the NFL doesn't excel at excess.

Might as well embrace it. If Mike Mayock wants to host a one-hour special on the genetic structure of Terrence Cody's thighs, and how they might affect both the left guard's responsibilities against a 3-4 fire zone blitz and their effect on wind patterns as they relate to Indiana agriculture, then bring it on. What else am I going to watch, ice dancing?

My only complaint is that in those 30 hours, they don't even air the most interesting part of it: the interviews. Oh, what I wouldn't give for all-day access to a Carolina Panthers talent evaluator asking random linebacker prospects , "What type of cloud do you most identify with? Stratus, Cumulus, or Cirrus?" Make it anonymous if you have to. Blur out faces. I still want to see it.

Coverage begins tomorrow at 2:30 EST with the combine press conference.

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