The Scouting Combine is dehumanizing. That’s basically a given, at this point.
A debate emerged during the recent ownership meeting regarding the question of whether it has racial connotations as well.
As explained by Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent used the term “slave auction” in reference to the Scouting Combine. And that triggered a predictable round of harrumphing from some of the assumed oligarchs.
Falcons owner Arthur Blank reportedly took umbrage. As did Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Steelers owner Art Rooney chimed in about the information teams need to make good decisions about the draft. Bills owner Terry Pegula said some things that one unnamed source described to Jones as “incoherent,” pointing to the inherent exploitation of athletes in professional sports.
Jerry Jones reportedly referred to the fact that playing in the NFL is a “privilege.” A Cowboys spokesperson quibbled with the term, telling Jonathan Jones that Jerry said it’s an “opportunity,” not a “privilege.” Regardless, Commissioner Roger Goodell has called it a “privilege” in the past, and that’s the attitude the league always exudes.
This entire conversation is an arrow that strikes dangerously close to the heart of the NFL’s broader grift, when it comes to the overall psychology of entry-level players. It’s not a “privilege” for an elite athlete to be involuntarily selected to be employed by an NFL team that he maybe doesn’t want to play for. It’s a “privilege” for that team to be able to call dibs on a great player, and for the great player to have only two choices -- play for that NFL team, or don’t play in the NFL at all.
It’s one of the themes of Playmakers. Everyone has been brainwashed into thinking that the NFL decides annually to open its doors to the privileged few, bestowing upon them an opportunity to realize the wealth and fame of playing pro football at the highest levels by being drafted. Every year, we hear how it’s an “honor” and a “privilege” to be drafted.
And it’s all bullshit.
The NFL’s teams want the best players. They need the best players. By creating a draft system that is legal only because federal law creates an exception for multi-employer labor unions, the NFL forces the best of the best athletes to go where they’re told, whether they want to or not.
So, over time, the process has indeed become dehumanizing. Given that the NFL’s players are predominantly Black, it’s not out of line for Vincent to suggest that the process of stripping grown men down to their underwear for inspection by the assembled coaches, scouts, and owners looks a little (or a lot) like a modern-day slave auction.
Obviously, it’s not slavery. Still, incoming players lack the freedom to choose where they’ll live, where they’ll work, who they’ll work for, who they’ll work with. How can that ever be called a privilege?
The system is stacked in favor of the teams. And the league has used the pomp, circumstance, and popularity of the draft to help make everyone believe there’s some sort of Sorting Hat magic to the whole thing.
There isn’t. The teams are using this system to get what they need. Great football players. At a relatively low price, thanks to the rookie wage scale.
There’s a better way to distribute incoming players, one that is more fair to the people who are actually playing the game. I’ll leave that for another day. (Or you can read Playmakers.) For now, the point is that there’s a better way to treat the incoming players. The fact that the Scouting Combine is designed to let the various NFL teams select new parts for a perpetual football machine out of which every new part eventually will be discarded without a second thought has allowed the process to become, over time, something that ignores the fact that they’re dealing with human beings.
Kudos to Vincent for trying to remind the owners of this basic fact, and for trying to ensure that the men who are “privileged” to be poked and prodded and studied and scrutinized should be treated not like cogs and gears and spokes and wheels but like the human beings they are.