Tuesday Morning Thoughts: Combine and Oscars

Darius Heyward-Bey(pictured) ran a 4.3 forty on Sunday. But does this make him better than Michael Crabtree?

Random with a dose of Oscars and a sprinkle of NFL combine.

1. To use a Seinfeld line, I think Hugh Jackman might be a little vroom, vroom if you know what I mean. He is clean and well-dressed. Still don’t know what I am alluding to? To steal another Seinfeld line, let’s just say that Jackman is the starting short stop for the “other” team. Not that there’s anything wrong with that of course.

2. This is extremely politically incorrect, but I would assume that 90% of male Hollywood actors bat for the other team. This is just a random statistic that I’m putting out there- nothing to back it up. No need for a congressional steroid like hearing on this. I’m just saying. But again, not that there’s anything wrong with it.

3. Back to Hugh Jackman, how can I take his Wolverine role seriously in the next Wolverine movie that’s coming out? So Wolverine likes to dance and sing to depression era like musicals? Great.....

4. The Bulls beat Denver (a good team) with 8 players, but lost to Indiana (playing without Granger) with their new and full roster. It looks like it will take some time for these guys to gel. It can’t be easy bringing in 3-4 guys at the mid-way point. From Black thought coaching was tough before, I have sense it’s going to get a lot worse. I have no idea how he’s going to handle getting minutes for Tim Thomas, Salmons and Brad Miller.

5. I love the NFL. So much so that I devoutly watch NFL Network’s coverage of the scouting combine. I love watching the TEs, RBs and WRs running the 40. It’s pretty impressive seeing such large players run that fast. It’s still hard to comprehend just how freakishly athletic these guys are. But I do know one thing, they are bigger and faster than anyone I know.

6. From what little I could tell, it’s a deep WR pool with a few intriguing tall guys who run fast enough. But as John Gruden pointed out “there are not a lot of 6’4 and 6’5 WRs who make it in the NFL”. I sort of agree with Chucky, but Randy Moss is that tall and he’s arguably the best WR. Larry Fitzgerald is 6’3. I think I the Bears could use a tall WR, instead of a Marvin Harrison type. From the looks of it, there were quite a few later round draft pick WRs who are either Justin Gage or Bernard Berrian in this year's draft. The TEs looked okay. Running backs didn’t look that great. The big running backs like Beanie Wells and Moreno aren’t combine guys because they are not speedsters.

7. Friday Night Lights was just average this past Friday. They make Coach Taylor everyone’s father figure in the show. First it was Mat Sareson, then Smash, now back to Street. Yada, yada, yada. It gets a little old. But it’s still the best show on TV.

8. I think I want to watch Slumdog Millionare. I don’t want anything to do with Milk, Benjamin Button or the Reader. I probably would watch Frost/Nixon on Netflix. I really want to see the foreign films like Waltz with Bashir and the Class. All in all, Hollywood isn’t making that great of movies it seems. Although people (other than me) seemed to think that Batman and Ironman were great.

9. As I-truth pointed out, “Why don’t they have awards for best comedy, or best comedic actor, yet they give out awards for Best Makeup and Best Sound Mixing (And Sound editing)?” Great question. I think it has lots do with the fact that the Oscars are the snobby, English prince of the awards shows. They probably think comedic performances are below their artistic standards for an award. Maybe, but if you’re going to give out an award for best documentary (very little artistry going on there), why not best comedy? At least they are acting.

10. Back to the combine. I think the nerdy guy from Page 2, Greg Easterbrook pointed out how silly it is for NFL GMs to place so much emphasis on the 40 times. I think he makes a pretty good point. It’s almost impossible to judge how much a 4.40 differs from a 4.51 forty time. But, this made me think of the Malcom Gladwell book I’m reading, “Outliers”. He makes a good argument for the relationship between IQ scores and someone’s success (career wise). I won’t go into the details, but his main argument is that all that matters is that you are smart enough. So, if an IQ of 120 represents a smart person, you’re not going to see a big difference in career success in a person with an IQ of 140. I can see how this makes sense. We all know people who are just too smart. They tend to think too much and end up stumbling. Anyway, the point is simple; to be successful you just need to be "smart enough".

The same could probably be said for 40 times. All a player really needs is a “good enough” 40 time. If you can’t run at least a 4.7 40, well you can’t play WR in the NFL (of course there are exceptions to every rule. I believe Anquan Bolden ran a 4.73). But generally, if you run a 4.5 forty and have good hands, you can play in the NFL. There isn’t much difference between the 4.35 guy and the 4.5 guy. They will be separated by other things probably, but nothing with respect to their forty skills.

Thus to make this pragmatic, if you are a GM, I think it makes sense to look at guys who are fast “enough” (say they can run below at 4.6). If they meet the threshold, then look at what really makes them special: hands, leaping ability, agility, height, strength, work ethic, IQ, etc.