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What Happens in Indy

17 Tuesday Feb 2015

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There seems to be a lot of confusion about what people in the football business do in Indianapolis (besides freeze) during combine week. Let’s try to clear that up today with a very brief overview.

If you’re in Indy for the combine, you’re in one of four groups: player, media, NFL, agent or vendor. There are others who show up to be part of the mix, but that’s pretty much it.

Players, obviously, are there to compete and put up numbers. They are there for four days. The last day is always the day they go to Lucas Oil Stadium and run, jump, etc. The first day is the travel day when they fill out all the forms, make sure they’re fitted right, etc. Somewhere in those four days, they also go to the hospital and get all the medical stuff taken care of. They also are interviewed extensively by NFL teams, either as part of the scheduled session the combine sets out or as part of an individual session an interested team schedules.

Most players also are run through the NFL media room, where there are hundreds of credentialed writers and broadcasters there to ask questions, get video, do interviews, etc. The bigger players are sent to a podium, where they get the full treatment in front of a panel of cameras. The lesser players wind up getting placed at tables where they are interviewed one-on-one, mostly by local writers and media.

If you’re NFL media, you’re pretty much stuck in that room in Lucas Oil Stadium for three days, because they bring the players to you. What most writers do is get tons of quotes from players that they have ‘in the can’ as they do features later throughout the spring.

For agents, the schedule varies. The biggest event of the week is the NFLPA seminar, which is always held on the Friday of the combine. All contract advisors have to attend at least one meeting per year, and this is the one that most attend; the other two are in Las Vegas the weekend before the draft and in Baltimore in mid-May. Most of the agents at the seminar don’t have clients at the combine, so they arrive Thursday night, go to the seminar Friday, then race to the airport that afternoon.

Seasoned agents do things a little differently. There is a lot of meeting and schmoozing with league officials, especially for those agents who have players awaiting free agency in a few weeks. The more connected agents also sit down with scouts and NFL executives to bang the drum for their clients. Usually, agents will hang around at least until their client works out, though there’s really not a lot they can do for them. At the combine, it’s all about what the player does in Lucas Oil Stadium.

If you’re NFL — scout, executive, coach, other league official — your routine is pretty simple. You go to Lucas Oil Stadium early in the morning, watch players participate in drills all day, meet with your team, then hit the nightlife (or go to bed). Workouts start Friday and continue through Monday. These days, fans can pretty much see everything the scouts are seeing because it’s all broadcast, but I can tell you there’s one person who won’t be watching: me. I used to sneak into the combine in the early 2000s, and to me, if you want to REALLY get bored, watch men run 40 yards, time after time, all day. It was complete drudgery. I’d rather have nails driven through my eyelids.

If you’re a vendor, you’re pretty much in one of two places, either the Omni Hotel or the Indiana Convention Center (ICC). The ICC is where we’ll be holding our seminar Thursday evening, and we’ll be in amongst several people trying to pitch weight training, mental skills metrics, and other services to NFL types. In the old days, vendors were practically stacked on top of each other because the RCA Dome was connected to the ICC, meaning all scouts had to parade down the hallways to get out of the building. These days, there’s not the same traffic, but you still get some vendors who don’t want to pay Omni prices that use the ICC.

The Omni is kind of the ‘hangout’ for people when they’re between drills or looking to hook up with friends in the business. It has a big lobby with plenty of suites, and Nike always sets up there, as well as several other more non-descript services. But the big win with the Omni is that you’re in the middle of the action. I like to hang out at the Omni on Saturday in the room behind the lobby. The wi-fi is free, and everyone comes through there. It’s the best place to catch up with all my clients and friends.

Combine Week vs. Senior Bowl Week

16 Monday Feb 2015

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Well, I leave Wednesday for Indianapolis. It’s National Invitational Camp (the official name of the combine) week. Combine Week is the second-best week of the year to someone like me after the Senior Bowl. If you’re a person who’ll be in Indy this week trying to make connections, let’s talk a bit about how it differs from Mobile.

People think of the combine as the biggest week in football, at least from an NFL standpoint. The thing is, there are two ‘parties’ for the NFL, and they are the Senior Bowl and the combine. You’re pretty much going to get everyone from the NFL at both of these events, with two major differences.

One, at the Senior Bowl, two teams are still alive, so their staffs are a little abbreviated. You won’t see any of the coaches from those teams, and you might not see as many scouts or the GM.

Two, I always describe the Senior Bowl as a football party where everyone is invited, and to some degree that’s true. It’s far more ‘open’ and if you’re at least peripherally associated with the game, it’s relatively easy to get credentialed. It’s also true that the people of Mobile are super-friendly but also very welcoming and hospitable to football folks, because the Senior Bowl is the No. 1 event on their social calendar (though they take Mardi Gras pretty seriously there, as well). Each night, there’s a gala event sponsored by some major part of the football industry, and it’s by invitation only. People come out in their suits and evening dresses and it’s clearly a big deal.

On the other hand, at the combine, if you don’t have a badge around your neck, access is very limited. You won’t get any farther than the front door of the players hotel if you don’t have an NFL credential. You won’t get past the entrance to Lucas Oil Stadium if you don’t have a media badge. You won’t get into the NFLPA seminar without signing in and showing that you’re an agent.

Probably the biggest difference between the two is that in Mobile, the big event of the week is relatively open. Even if you don’t have a badge, you can come in and watch practices. And if you want to hobnob with NFL types but don’t have any real connections, you can just go to the team hotel, the Renaissance, and you’re good to go. At the combine, you’re not getting into the stadium to check out the workouts unless you work for the NFL or have otherwise obtained a badge, and they’re not so easy to acquire. Meanwhile, because the city is a bigger and more spread out, there’s not one hotel where everyone hangs out. I guess the closest thing to the Renaissance in Indy is the Omni; it’s become the place where all the vendors hoping to attract NFL business rent space and set up suites.

I’ll try to check in frequently from Indy this week, but don’t hold me to it. It’s going to be busy, but also fun. As always, I’ll let you know on Twitter whenever I’ve got something new.

Scenes from a combine prep facility

13 Friday Feb 2015

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This morning, Inside the League conducted interview skills prep with two players headed to the combine next week, Texas A&M OH Trey Williams and Stephen F. Austin OH Gus Johnson. Here are a few random thoughts.

  • Everyone who says today’s athlete is different, and that the joy of the game is gone once you get to the NFL (or near the NFL), is wrong. I wish we had filmed Gus and Trey going back and forth about whose high school was better. Trey went to DeKaney HS in Spring, Texas, (a Class 6A school just outside Houston) and Gus went to Gilmer (a Class 2A school in East Texas). DeKaney won the state title in 2011, when Trey was still there (here’s a picture), while Gilmer is defending state champ. Trey’s position was that he had the upper hand because (a) he was there won his school won its only state title and (b) because it’s bigger and has more talented athletes, while Gus contended his argument was stronger because (a) Gilmer has been a consistently dominant school at several levels of Texas state football, (b) DeKaney had more athletes only because it’s much bigger, and (c) his school is the defending state champ. The best part was that neither got excited, raised his voice, or banged the table; both remained cool, calculated and dry-witted (at one point Trey even threw in a Kanye-style ‘I’m gonna let you finish’). It was like watching ‘Meet the Press,’ but funny. It was good-natured jabbing. That’s what sports is all about.
  • On the way over, I called one of my friends in scouting and asked, ‘what’s the one question you always ask that a player better get right?’ He didn’t hesitate: ‘Is there anything else we need to know about?’ was his response. He said that most teams already know the answers to questions they ask, and they just want to see how the player responds. However, if it turns out there was an issue a player tried to slide past them, off their draft board he goes.
  • I assisted an agent in placing one of his clients with an ex-scout for interview skills work this morning. In the course of our conversation, he mentioned that the industry leader in interview prep, a former NFL GM who has essentially ‘created’ the market, is overbooked and unavailable. He added that his prices were prohibitive anyway. That cracked me up. You know what players need to know before they go into the interview room? Be honest! Be forthright! Be contrite! Be you! That’s all there is to it. If you try to fool teams, they’re going to find out at some point anyway. You’re not going to trick people for long, if at all. Just own what you did (if you did anything) and be a man about it, and you’re set. And it doesn’t cost a cent to do that.

WSW2: More Thoughts from a Veteran Agent

12 Thursday Feb 2015

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For the second part of War Story Wednesday, we continue our conversation with Howard Shatsky (@HowardShatsky), who has a unique perspective on sports representation given his almost three decades in the league. Today, Howard discusses a recent recruiting experience that has become all too common, plus discusses the way money has come to influence the industry in a negative way.

A few years ago I met with a player with a second- or third-round NFL grade and his father. Having spoken with his coaches and many of my NFL contacts, my conclusion was the player would be drafted in the sixth or seventh round, at best. The first thing the player’s father expressed to me was, “Just so you know, we want $15,000 up front from whomever we sign with.

“No disrespect to your 25 years of experience,” the father continued, “but I don’t think that matters. My son is going to be drafted in the second or third round based solely on his talent, and that has nothing to do with you.”

When I gave my assessment of where the player would be drafted, I was told, “You are crazy; all the other agents are telling us different.” He ended up signing with an agent who had very little experience, though he did give the young man the $15,000 he and his father were looking for. The player was not drafted, signed as a free agent, was released before training camp, picked up by another team and than released again. Thus, based on the initial upfront payment and various expenses, on that one player alone, the agent lost approximately $20,000.

I wish I could tell you this was unusual, but in this day and age, the vast majority of players make their agent decision based on how much money an agent is willing to spend to obtain them as a client. In my opinion, this is not a good thing for the industry. Back in the old days, if an agent had two or three first-round picks, that was a great year. The large firms in the industry now routinely sign up to eight first-round picks. Is that because that many players suddenly decided a big agency was what they needed? I don’t think so.

I am often asked how to get into the agent business, and over the years my answer to that question has changed. When I am asked that now, my answer is to have very rich parents, or someone that is willing to loan you a lot of money. One of the issues is, are agents getting value for the money they spend to sign players?

Whenever I am asked about that, I think about the fact that the best player I ever worked with was (former Giants DE) Michael Strahan, and somehow, despite the fact he did not work out with a personal trainer for the combine, he was still able to make the Hall of Fame! In my opinion, when players are selecting an agent, they should not only consider how much the agent is willing to spend on them, but the experience and commitment that person has to his clients.

Howard Shatsky started his career at the NFLPA and has been working with NFL players since 1989. Howard currently represents NFL players for his own firm, Professional Football Management, and represents coaches for the firm, Coaches, Inc. You can follow Howard on Twitter at @HowardShatsky.

 

WSW: The Evolution of Agent Recruiting

11 Wednesday Feb 2015

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Today, for War Story Wednesday, I turn the blog over to Howard Shatsky of Pro Football Management (@HowardShatsky), who’s been a successful NFL agent for decades. He’s represented a number of pro football luminaries including former Giants DE Michael Strahan, who has transcended football and is now as known in Hollywood circles as he is in football circles.

Howard has a unique perspective on things, having seen the representation side of the game go through several mutations. I asked him to discuss the transition to the modern age of athlete representation with me, and it resulted in this blog post, as well as the one we’ll publish tomorrow.

Today, Howard, discusses recruiting. Tomorrow, he talks more about anecdotes from his time in the game to illustrate his points.

Recently you may have read a post by Neil Stratton talking about the expenses an agent must incur in order to sign a prospective late-round draft choice. This post led to a discussion between Neil and I about how the industry has changed.

My first year representing NFL players was 1989 and that year I signed a second-round pick from Penn State. Although we had been speaking by telephone, the first time we actually met in person was at the Senior Bowl, and he did not end up signing with the firm I was working for until after the NFL Combine. I signed a few other players and did not have my first conversation with any of them until sometime around December.

The recruiting aspect of the industry has changed dramatically since that time. The majority of recruiting now takes place the summer prior to the player’s senior season. By the end of the season most college players have already narrowed down their list of potential agents, if they have not already decided on who they will sign with. Many players even sign within a few hours of their last college game.

There is a very simple reason for this: personal trainers and combine prep. When I first started representing players, agents did not pay for personal trainers. Players worked out at their respective schools with their strength coaches. The only expense involved in signing a draft choice was occasionally giving the player a few hundred dollars to pay for gas and groceries. My, how the game has changed.

Now, players want to sign with an agent very close to the end of the season so they can fly to a training facility and start working out for the combine. Most prospective top-round picks want to train at a known facility. The expense for this alone can be in the neighborhood of $25,000. This does not include monthly cash stipends, workout gear, food, rental cars and numerous other things players expect an agent to now pay for. Trainers are well aware that in order to sign these players, an agent has to pay for a trainer, so be prepared to pay a lot more than the going rate for an athletic trainer. In most recruit meetings, the first question I am asked is, what are you going to pay for? Even players who have free agent NFL grades expect an agent to pay for their trainer. If you are able to sign a top-round pick, plan on budgeting a minimum of $50,000.

Howard Shatsky started his career at the NFLPA and has been working with NFL players since 1989. Howard currently represents NFL players for his own firm Professional Football Management and Coaches for the firm Coaches, Inc. You can follow Howard on Twitter at @HowardShatsky.

 

Long shots

10 Tuesday Feb 2015

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I had a couple of experiences this weekend that really underlined the passion of young athletes trying to live their football dreams, but also the confusion that surrounds such pursuits. The irony is that young men trying to star on football fields as players face almost the same odds as those seeking to ‘star’ off the field as scouts, agents, or executives in the game. Both of this weekend’s experiences involved the Arena Football League.

  • On Sunday, I attended an open tryout for the AFL’s Los Angeles Kiss in Southeast Houston. Around 100 young men showed up, with about half of them walk-ups, i.e., they weren’t even sure they wanted to work out until Sunday. Some were drinking beer in the parking lot before the workout. That didn’t stop their wives, girlfriends, kids, parents, and friends from filling the bleachers for the tryout, which cost $80 in advance/$95 day of tryout (cash only). There were probably as many people watching as there were trying out. I often wonder if the players attending these tryouts know what’s ahead of them if they make it. Most of these players make around $700/game and have their apartments and food taken care of. Their personnel director told me today that none were offered contracts, but about four were good enough that they may be offered a chance to come to L.A. to work out with the team at some point. They won’t be offered a contract; they’ll just have their expenses covered while they remain in AFL limbo, hoping to be put on the roster. Think about that; the number of players who might get a chance to play in the AFL off that tryout was about four percent, and those players will only get a chance to play, with no guarantees. Yet their loved ones were there on Sunday with their phones out, filming every sprint and every jump, and probably holding out hope that their player would get ‘discovered.’
  • The previous day, I had gotten a call from a good friend. He’s a great guy and his family is close to mine. He has become friends with a young man who played some college football at various small-school stops and even took part in a number of indoor football games over the past 18 months or so. My friend has taken a paternal interest in him, and really believes in the young man’s athleticism and chance to play in the NFL someday. At any rate, the young man attended an AFL workout in New Orleans on Saturday, and apparently drew a little interest from a team official, though it wasn’t enough for him to be offered a contract. At any rate, my friend was calling because he hoped I would be able to get the young man a tryout with the Texans. My initial reaction was to chuckle and insist that I’m not nearly as connected as my friend thinks I am. My second reaction, however, was to caution him that the young man is still almost as far away from his NFL dreams as he was before the tryout in New Orleans. I told my friend, in fact, that he would have to stick out so much at that tryout that even a toddler would call him a stone-cold baller if he were indeed an NFL talent. I’d even go so far as to say my friend needs to encourage the young man to get on with his life rather than continuing to pour time, money and effort into NFL pursuits.

Though both of these anecdotes provide a dose of gravity to the process and are perhaps heavy on desperation, you can’t fault these players’ desire. You need to have no less a drive to succeed in football if your goal is to work in the business.

WSW2: Another Perspective on Matthews

09 Monday Feb 2015

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Today, I turned things over to Ken Moll, who two years ago was running the scouting department for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Ken is the scout who ‘discovered’ Seahawks WO Chris Matthews, who excelled in Seattle’s Super Bowl loss to the Patriots two weekends ago. Here’s Ken’s story on identifying and signing Matthews.

 

“I try to do things geographically. During the spring, I hit as many pro days as I could, including Ball State, Louisville, Western Kentucky, Vanderbilt, University of Tennessee, anywhere in about a three- to five-hour circle. I didn’t go much further than that. I mean, I went to (University of Alabama-Birmingham) and Alabama one year, but pretty much I went to Kentucky every year. (Matthews) was a guy that I had marked, but we didn’t have a spot for him. He was a junior college kid, and he comes into Kentucky, and he has a decent junior year and a big senior year as far as amount of catches, more than (former UK teammate and present Packers WO Randall) Cobb. And he had really big hands, he had length, and ran OK at his pro day, though he didn’t have great speed. But he’s 6-5 and I bet he weighed more than 218 .. . and really refined his route-running his second year at UK.

“We had lost a guy named Greg Carr, a big tall kid from Florida State, and he was a good player for us the year before, and after the second year, he was one of the free agents we wanted to resign and we didn’t get it done. (Carr) was very similar to (Matthews). (Winnipeg GM) Joe (Mack) and I got on the horn and we wanted to find another big receiver, and I remembered him, and he didn’t run great, he ran OK, but he could catch the crap out of the ball and was just so big. On turf at (Kentucky’s) indoor facility, he ran in the upper 4.6 range, but had enough functional speed that he wasn’t awkward or gawky. He could run for a big guy, and the catches you saw him make in the Super Bowl, he did that all the time in the CFL. You don’t find those big guys up in the CFL, and at times, he was covered but he wasn’t covered. He was just so big. He was tougher than this Carr kid. Chris was a little shorter but thicker and could go in traffic and get it.

“I’m pretty sure, when I found him, I tried to call and I think he was in Arena Ball at the time, and I remember getting on the phone with him and I think we just took my numbers from a year before (and signed him without working him out). Who knows? He could have looked like a cabdriver, but I’m big on working a guy out again, at least weigh and measure, but I think we took him sight unseen and they loved him up there, and they said, ‘wow, where do you find these big guys that can catch,’ and all I can tell you is, he runs fast enough.

“You only have enough room for a (certain number) of guys, and we didn’t’ want to have five receivers that were 6-4 or 6-5. Chris didn’t have a lot of run-after-the-catch ability, and half the time he was covered, but he’d just reach over guys and make catches. In the practices, the coaches would love him. If you don’t have the speed — I mean, you can’t be flat-out slow — but I said, OK, I need to find a big guy. I mean, Carr had ran like a 4.54 or something like that, and they were similar in route-running, but the whole package was better. Chris was a little stronger, a little more competitive, and caught the ball slightly better.”

WSW: Chris Matthews’ Story

06 Friday Feb 2015

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We missed out on War Story Wednesday again, so we’re going to have a two-part War Story that starts on Friday and continues until Monday.

After WO Chris Matthews had a great Super Bowl last weekend, I did a little research on him. Turns out his agent and the then-CFL scout who ‘discovered’ him are both good friends, so I turned to each of them to tell Chris’ story. Here’s Rodney’s story. On Monday, we’ll tell it from the perspective of former Winnipeg Director of Player Personnel Ken Moll.

Today, we’ll start with Rodney Edwards, his agent. I asked him to tell the story of Chris’ road from undrafted free agent to two other leagues before starring on the big stage.

“Chris signed as an undrafted free agent with the Browns after the (2011) draft, and he went to the last cut. He didn’t make the practice squad and got cut. Then he got a two-game suspension on a prescription with codeine that he took for a toothache, so no teams picked him up, and we couldn’t get him a tryout. So he went back home, and I think he worked at Foot Locker in Los Angeles.

“Then he went to the Arena League, I think with the Iowa Barnstormers, and played maybe eight games. Then he went to Canada, to Winnipeg, in the spring. There, a scout (Winnipeg Director of Player Personnel Ken Moll) saw him and said he wanted to take a look at him, and wanted to know, was he still in Kentucky? I told him no, he’s playing Arena. So they brought him to Canada — I tell all my free agent guys to get their passport so if they get the call to go to Canada, they can go – and he went to minicamp with them. They signed him, and when the CFL season started, he went to camp and made the cut.

“That year, he had about 1,000 yards receiving, 81 catches and 14 TDs, and he was the CFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. Then the next season, a lot of teams came and looked at him from the NFL, and I thought he was going to get bought out of his contract but he wasn’t. So we went into the (CFL) season, and could never get back on track. He had several nagging injuries — a shoulder, butt, and ankle injury — and I think he finished the season with like maybe 200, 300 yards receiving, if that. He was kind of worried he’d have to stay in the CFL, and I told him I wouldn’t do another CFL deal.

“So our first workout was with Indianapolis, and our second was with Minnesota. Then he went to Kansas City, then Green Bay, then Seattle. Seattle was his last workout. (The workouts were) like boom, boom, boom, one after another, even while I was on vacation. NFL teams had wanted to wait until the (CFL) season was over, so they worked him out starting in February, and it went all the way up until April, and (Seattle) resigned him right before the NFL draft.

“He made the practice squad the first week, then they cut him and sent him home. Then they brought him back, and I don’t remember the date. Then they cut him again, and he worked out for Washington. Washington didn’t sign him, so the Seahawks brought him back, then cut him again. I think the Seahawks cut him four times (total). So then he worked out for the Giants but didn’t sign, and finally the Seahawks signed him in October, latter part or in early November, and he was on the roster ever since.

“I didn’t really have to bug teams (to get him workouts), but when it first initially started, I called several teams. After Indianapolis called back and we got a workout, after that first workout, I told others, ‘he’s starting to get interest, and if you’re interested, you need to get in this pool, he’s gonna make a decision pretty soon,’ and several teams called but never could schedule workouts, and after the Seattle workout he signed.”

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

03 Tuesday Feb 2015

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On Monday, I got a question from a young agent who’s dedicated and hard-working. In the course of conducting his due diligence on the scouts he needs to know during the ’15 draft process, he asked me if Arizona — a state where a couple of his clients went to school — is considered a Southwest or West Coast area for the purposes of NFL teams.

I get this question all the time, and unfortunately, there’s no ‘answer’ to the question. Some teams consider Arizona West Coast, some consider it Southwest. Some teams don’t break the nation down by regions, but just assign small clumps of states to different scouts. I know one West Coast scout who doesn’t even live in the region he’s in; he’s on the East Coast.

This is one reason scouting and evaluation are so hard to measure. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that different teams not only do things differently, but they couldn’t care less how others do it. There’s one NFC team that has consistently struggled on draft day for at least the last decade-and-a-half, but continues with essentially the same personnel and the same methodology.

Part of this self-fulfilling prophecy is because no one has developed a consistent metric for evaluating scouts. Maybe it’s because no one wants to be held to an objective measure when it’s time to make changes in the scouting lineup. Maybe it’s because it’s so hard to truly evaluate the job a scout does. Maybe because it’s rare for just one scout to truly ‘discover’ a player, when most teams will send 3-4 pairs of eyes to evaluate everyone on their draft boards. Maybe it’s because scouting departments change philosophies so often, valuing character the most one year, athletic ability the next, size the following year, or even certain schools and regions at times. It’s really pretty murky.

It all goes back to one of the themes of this blog. If you think someone out there has things ‘on lock,’ you’re wrong. NFL teams are made up of human beings, and they make mistakes and fall back on comfortable but flawed methods. Even in a business that is filled with smart, efficient, capable people, there is opportunity if you can identify weaknesses and figure out how to make them strengths. It’s one of the things that makes this game, and this business, fascinating.

The Half-Percent

02 Monday Feb 2015

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I got a text this morning from a friend who used to run a CFL personnel department (Ken Moll, who’s written in this space a few times before). It started this way:

“Happy for this kid Chris Matthews (for Seattle). I brought him in to Winnipeg (from Arena ball, played at Kentucky). Also, I see where the Steelers signed a safety/LB (Ian Wild) who played at Mercyhurst, cut by the Bills out of college but can play . . . Given that there is no feeder-type league for the NFL, I believe the Canadian league (with the right person) needs more attention. Just a thought.”

Let me first say that I think Ken’s right. I think the CFL and AFL deserve more attention. But I always have people asking me about why there’s no feeder league for the NFL akin to the old NFL Europe model.

There are two reasons. No. 1, as I’ve discussed in this space previously, one could argue that the NFL has the best feeder system in the league in NCAA football, and it doesn’t cost them a cent. But the other issue is cost and the economy of finding and developing sleepers.

The NFL has almost unlimited resources, it’s true, but I still don’t think they’re excited about losing money. Let’s say they started some kind of feeder league with eight teams, just to keep things balanced, and they kept them all in Northeast markets, just to keep travel simple. By the time they rostered 45 players, paid a staff, covered travel and stadium costs and the other miscellaneous expenses, I think it would cost $500,000 to run each team, and I think that number is very conservative. So $4 million, at least, to run a feeder league.

So what would they net? That’s something we could argue. I think the results wouldn’t be a lot different from what they’re getting. Every March, NFL teams weigh, measure, time, etc., about 3,000 players at their pro days. Around 250 are drafted in April and about the same are signed as undrafted free agents, so let’s say 2,500 are turned into street free agents. The best of those players fan out to the AFL, CFL, and in some instances European leagues. At the most, maybe 15 of those players that didn’t make it into camps wind up back in the league and on 53-man rosters. That’s one half of one percent of the players that worked out for NFL scouts at pro days.

Also, keep in mind that the players that take the long road to the NFL are not Kurt Warners, or even as skilled as Chris Matthews. They’re usually one step above the practice squad. So the question becomes, how much does the NFL want to spend in order to find the 52nd or 53rd man on 10-15 NFL teams, annually? And keep in mind that Warner was really not a failure of the system, but of the Packers; he went to camp with the team when it had Brett Favre, Mark Brunell and even Ty Detmer on the roster. Eventually, his performance in the AFL got him an NFL chance without the league having to step in and create a league for him.

I think it would be great if there’s a minor league for the NFL; it’s incredibly fun when players like Matthews play a big role in a big game after toiling in obscurity for a long time. I just think the economics of such a league do not work.