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| Tuesday, January 22 Updated: January 25, 12:30 AM ET Players: 'It was ... like a meat market' By David Duffey ESPN.com |
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MOBILE, Ala. -- The sound hits you before the sliding doors of the Adam's Mark Hotel open.
Once inside, the cacophony of cell phones ringing, greetings, introductions, television and radio interviews, intense conversations and whispered rumors create a constant hum in which the individual sounds are often difficult to distinguish. You've hit the buzz around the weigh-in for the Senior Bowl.
The importance of the Senior Bowl to the NFL is readily evident as you pass agents, scouts, representatives from Canadian League teams, NFL coaches and their targets -- the best senior talent entering the 2002 NFL Draft.
Content after munching on one of the South's true delicacies, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, the coaches and scouts are assembled in the Alabama Ballroom on the second floor of the hotel. Team rosters are handed out. Measurements of the players' arm and hands are already on the sheet, along with blanks to fill in their height and weight.
Outside the ballroom, the anxious players are gathering for their appearance. Before entering the ballroom, the players strip off their warm-ups, shirts and shoes. The members of the South team are shuttled into the room first, looking uneasy as hundreds of coaches and scouts ogle them in their shorts and socks.
Senior Bowl officials announce that all agents must leave the room, and we're ready to roll. UCLA defensive back Marques Anderson is the unfortunate player to be first in the queue. Compared to the overwhelming noise before, the room is eerily quiet. An uneasy looking Anderson takes his position on stage to be measured -- his shoulders ominously framed by exit signs. "Height, 5, 1, 0, 6," announces the Senior Bowl official -- which translates to 5-feet, 10-and-sixth-eighths inches -- and the scouts and coaches scribble the information on their rosters. A New Orleans Saints scout leans over to a colleague and says "why didn't I get a degree in engineering?" Anderson moves over to the scale. "Weight, 207," is the announcement. The Senior Bowl weigh-in is underway.
As the process moves along, the players seem to become more at ease. Louisville's Deion Branch chews away on his gum as he is measured, while Oklahoma's Rocky Calmus jokes with the officials weighing him.
Team representatives approach the players as they leave the room asking them to fill out questionnaires or trying to set up appointments. Some are asked to conduct interviews with the media before heading to the dining room for lunch. "It was different," said Calmus about the weigh-in. "You're a little uncomfortable, but everybody has to do it and it was not that bad. I just wasn't as heavy as I wanted to be." (Calmus is listed at 234 pounds on the Senior Bowl roster, but only registered 229 at Monday's weigh-in.) Tennessee's Travis Stephens echoed the thoughts of many players saying, "it was weird man, like a meat market."
It takes a little over an hour for all the players to wind their way through the weigh-in process. It doesn't take long for the noise level to rise either. Scouts and coaches begin discussing who looked fit, muscular and had good definition -- and who didn't. Slowly, the crowd thins and moves to the parking lot ready to move to the first practice.
The "meat market" may be over, but that only means that nearly a week's worth of scrutiny has just begun.
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