The NFL made it through a tumultuous campaign.
Several key players missed significant time due to COVID restrictions.
And the NFL barely dodged an ugly boycott because of Joe Biden’s mandate.
The annual NFL Scouting Combine resumes after a one-year hiatus due to COVID protocols.
The Combine is where hundreds of top college football players show up and essentially audition for all 32 NFL teams.
But the combine almost didn’t happen for the second year in a row because of draconian COVID restrictions.
Agents for many of the top prospects threatened to organize a boycott, but the league ceded to the prospects’ requests.
From The Athletic:
“The 2022 NFL Scouting Combine has adjusted its COVID-19 policies after agents representing more than 150 draft prospects began organizing a boycott of all testing, on-field workouts and interviews at the event in response to the league’s bubble restrictions…The adjustments…will allow players to leave the bubble during their free time or have approved medical personnel, athletic trainers and massage therapists join them in the secure areas.”
The players and their agents found the COVID procedures onerous and wanted them relaxed in order to give the players the best opportunity to perform at a high level.
If players don’t participate at the Combine, they can perform at individual pro days at their alma maters, but teams tend to put less stock in pro days because they don’t get as much personal time with the players.
Also, players’ 40-yard dash times are almost always inflated at controlled pro days versus the Combine.
The NFL Players Association, which is no fan of the Combine, said in a statement:
“We have spoken to several agents to reinforce our long standing opposition to the NFL Scouting Combine and agree and support the decisions by those to not attend. The combination of the NFL’s proposed ‘bubble’ and fact that we still have an antiquated system of every team doctor examining players and having them perform yet again needs serious modification or elimination…While we do not represent these players we have advocated for their rights to fair treatment.”
The Combine has recently come under scrutiny by the “woke” left.
Anti-American anthem protester Colin Kaepernick likened the Combine to slave auctions in his horrendous Netflix series:
In his Netflix special, Colin Kaepernick suggests the NFL training camp is synonymous with literally buying slaves.
Unreal. pic.twitter.com/slLnks7RPq
— Mythinformed MKE (@MythinformedMKE) October 30, 2021
Others have parroted this absurd absurd.
Far-left director Ava DuVernay, who produced Kaepernick’s series, echoed his sentiments during an interview.
Needless to say, slaves were not in line to make millions of dollars, and they didn’t have power agents organizing a boycott on their behalf.
The left’s attempts to relate modern-day America to atrocities of the past are ridiculous and insulting.
