Monday Mumblings: The NFL Com-bore

In the NFL Network’s ongoing quest to make itself and the NFL as a whole relevant for the entire year, they have been broadcasting live (and immediate repeats) coverage from the 2010 NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis.

I have been watching the last two days of workouts, and between watching offensive linemen run the 40 yard dash and nearly every top quarterback prospect stand around during the throwing drills, I began to wonder what the point was of the wall to wall coverage. That thought sidetracked me long enough to flip it over to the Olympic hockey gold medal game. U-S-eh? Seriously congratulations to the Canadians for taking the gold. That was an exciting match, and will have me watching more hockey.

Oh yeah, the combine. Mike Mayock of the NFL Network had perhaps the best explanation of its reason d’etre: This was a chance for everyone to come together and measure the top prospects on a level playing field. That makes sense. During yesterday’s coverage, Mayock said that the Oakland Raiders Al Davis used to tell all his scouts to add four one hundredths of a second because it was on astro-turf. (It is now on field turf.)

It is kind of hard to blame Tim Tebow and the other quarterbacks for not throwing, because any issues that happen at the combine happen under the microscope. However, the top candidates pulling out on one hand defeats the purpose of the combine. The positive side is that it gives some of the fringe candidates a chance to show what they can do. Props to Tony Pike for throwing.

Mayock may be one of the best football analysts, but his delivery is quite even. He understands the nuances, and is able to explain them well. He just needs to show some excitement. Michael Irvin complements him well. It is a good thing that Deon Sanders was left behind.

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Someone please make sure that NBC doesn’t decide to tape delay the next Super Bowl they broadcast. It was ridiculous being in the same time zone as the Olympics, but not seeing things until hours after they happened. Fortunately, they got smart showed the key hockey games live.

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Comment of the week:

Spokane Oak Fan on the article Raiders to give the stopwatch a rest:

written by SpokaneOakFan, February 24, 2010

Nnamdi I’ll give you, but with Chris Johnson, Stanford Routt and then Johnathan Holland rounding out the CB corps, you think we’re set there??!!? Mr. Davis, please stop using Dizzle’s account.

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Movie classic of the week: 1984

A stunning adaptation of the George Orwell novel that was filmed in 1984 by director Michael Radford and starring John Hurt (Winston Smith),  Suzanna Hamilton (Julia), and the final role of Sir Richard Burton (O’Brien). Despite this film being made 26 years ago, it does not look dated due to the ‘out of time’ style look they used for the world of Airstrip One. It remains quite faithful to the original novel, and has stellar performances by the three main actors.

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This Monday Mumblings is a new experiment, bear with me as I hone it to find what works and doesn’t work. Your thoughts and comments are always welcome in the comment box.