Ever wonder what the NFL Combine is really like? I stumbled accross an AMAZING recollection from this year's NFL Combine by OSU lineman Andy Levitre. 260 questions from the NY Giants??? Wow, they must REALLY be interested in him.
Here is the excerpt taken from Blog.Oregon.live.com. Happy reading :-)
Here is former OSU lineman Andy Levitre's thoughts after going through the NFL Combine ... thanks to Andy and to his agent, Leo Goeas, for the dispatches from the Senior Bowl and the Combine.
Levitre, unplugged:
"Well, this week has been pretty busy for me.
Waking up around 5:30 am for the last three days and going to sleep around midnight really takes a toll on your body which I am sure most people participating in the Combine found out after day one.
The hotel we stayed at was on lock down 24/7 and you needed a special pass in order to get past the security points.
This was one of the most hectic weeks that I have ever had.
The first day of the Combine consisted of a Cybex test which tests the strengths in your hamstrings and quads for each leg to make sure that you don't have any issues from past injuries. .. the day also consisted of going to the local hospital and getting some things done, like: urinalysis, blood tests, injury history's, X-Rays and heart scans which took about two hours for it all.
We also had some informal meetings with some coaches and scouts.
That was the easiest part of the entire four days.
On Day 2 we had 5 a.m. drug testing which was the beginning of a long day.
After drug testing we had breakfast and headed across the street to Lucas Oil Stadium where we were going to do our official height and weight.
I ended up taking a detour to that because I had to get an MRI on my knee that was only supposed to take 40 minutes but ended up taking me about two hours to complete because the doctor felt he needed photos to cover more of my knee.
I ended up missing my weigh-ins and tagging along with the Tight Ends and then getting a late start on my orthopedic exams. Everyone was carrying a large manila envelope with their X-Rays in them to show the doctors.
There were six stations set up with about 5-6 team doctors/trainers at each station to examine each player. First we started out with a general medical check up by team doctors and also had a vision test. The general doctor saw that I had a resting heart rate of 40 beats per minute which is very low for a guy my size who measured in at 6-2½, 305 lbs. so they sent me to get a stress echo which is an ultrasound of your heart.
They hooked up a bunch of wires to my chest and had me run on a treadmill for ten minutes then I hopped on a table and they did the ultrasound to make sure my heart was pumping correctly which it was.
Then we met with the orthopedic doctors. This was the weirdest thing for me to go through. There is a circle of doctors surrounding a table and each player takes a turn hopping up on the table then they put your X-rays up on the lights and pull up any other material like MRI's.
Then, these doctors start to come up and look at your medical history and start tugging on your arms and legs like you are a piece of meat and then they turn away with their voice recorders and remind themselves of any notes that they had about you.
After doing this about six times it was about three o'clock in the afternoon.
I went back up to my room to take a nap for about an hour before dinner.
I ate dinner and then went back across the street for some more formal interview where I met with half of the NFL teams whether it was an offensive line coach or another position coach or even some scouts just so that they could collect some background information on me.
One of the big things coaches do is try and quiz you by having you draw up a play you ran or have you remember a play they draw up and the flipping it and seeing if you can remember.
Day 3 was our first chance to compete.We had to wake up at 6 a.m. this morning because we had to eat breakfast and then take our Wonderlic Test. I felt like the test went well for me since I answered 42 of the 50 possible questions in the allotted time of twelve minutes.
I feel like I at least answered 30 of the questions correct and the average for lineman is usually around 25.
After this test we went over to meet with the Players Association (NFLPA) to talk about things like the collective bargaining agreement and inform us about how they were created to help fight back for players and give them a voice to the NFL's General Managers and such.
It was a very interesting meeting and I also had a similar meeting in Mobile at the Senior Bowl.
When we finished the meeting we headed to the psychological testing area.
The tests are basically to find out what kind of person you are on the inside and make sure you aren't crazy or going to cause trouble.
The one test that got on my nerves a little was the test given by the New York Giants which consisted of 260, yes that is TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY questions plus another packet of 70 short answer questions after you finished that.
When I finished this I had the chance to speak with the offensive line coaches from both the Chicago Bears and the Dallas Cowboys for a little bit and talk about some football and draw up some more plays and explain the rules of the plays.
My next stop was to the bench press which was our first chance to put up some numbers for the coaches and show our strength. I usually don't get nervous before big events but for some reason I just couldn't hold it back. I was pretty pumped to get up there on stage and bench press in from of offensive line coaches, head coaches and GM's.
I ended up putting up 225 pounds 23 times which isn't necessarily bad but it isn't a great number.
While I was benching I was so focused on my workout that the strength coach yelling at me and the players screaming from the side were muted out of my hearing.
After this I met with my agent and my trainer and warmed-up lightly for Saturday's big event which consists of a lot of running.
This was my only day of scheduled formal interviews. I had twelve interviews. The teams that I met with were: Tennessee Titans, Houston Texans, Carolina Panthers, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, Washington Redskins, Miami Dolphins, Indianapolis Colts, San Diego Chargers, New York Jets, New York Giants, and the Oakland Raiders.
Most of these meetings were conducted in a similar manner. They asked about my family background and personal information then got into some football related questions and also either had me draw up some plays or even put some film on the television and had me critique myself or explain in detail what the play is that we were running.
Also during some of the interviews I had the chance to put in a good word for some of my old teammates. I spoke with Andy Reid from the Eagles and Mike Tomlin from the Steelers about the Rodgers brothers and they were asking me what it was like blocking for those guys and about how great college careers they have been having thus far.
I told some teams about Stephen Paea and how great of a player he is and how under-rated he has been so far. The meetings were great and went very smooth.
Well today was Day 4 and it was time to show off my athleticism.
It was a culmination of all of the hard work that I have had since I was a freshman in high school. All those drills that we worked on were now finally going to be tested at the highest level in the world.
We started off with some mobility and flexibility tests to show off our athleticism.
Next was our 40-yard dash. My first attempt, I tried to start to early so I was called back for a retry. My first run went alright but I felt like my start was a little slow but my second run ended up being better and recorded as 5.24 seconds.
Next we moved over to position drills where I felt very good being able to show off my versatility by taking pass sets and pulling from a left and right handed stance.
My best position drill I felt was the mirror drill which I feel I did a good job keeping my feet moving and had my eyes on my target the entire time.
Next was the vertical jump, this ended up being one of my best events on the day. I ended up jumping 30" on my first jump and got another half an inch on my second jump to make it 30.5".
I ended up being tied for 8th or 9th place overall for offensive lineman in this drill.
The next one was the broad jump which I thought I could have done better on but ended up not doing too bad. I ended up with my best jump being 8'7". Next I went over to do the 5-10-5 shuttle. The shuttle wasn't great for me because it took me about 7 tries to complete the drill.
On one of mine where I just barely missed the line I was told by someone in the stands timing me that they had me at a 4.38 seconds which would have put me at the second best for lineman in the drill but I ended up recording a time of 4.54 which was still the fifth overall best for lineman.
By the time I finished this drill I had to take off to catch my plane which left at 4 p.m. because it was already 2:30 so I decided that I would run my 3-cone drill at pro day in Corvallis.
I cut it so close to make my flight that I didn't even have time to shower before I hopped on the plane to come back to Denver.
I ended up making my flight on time and now I am back in Denver for another week before I head back to Corvallis to finish my training for Pro Day.
Thank you for taking the time to learn about the experiences that I am having.
It has been a great to have the chance to be doing these things to prepare for the NFL since there are only a select few people every year that get the chance to do this.
I hope you all enjoyed reading my blogs as much as I have enjoyed writing them.''
- Andy Levitre
Here is the excerpt taken from Blog.Oregon.live.com. Happy reading :-)
Here is former OSU lineman Andy Levitre's thoughts after going through the NFL Combine ... thanks to Andy and to his agent, Leo Goeas, for the dispatches from the Senior Bowl and the Combine.
Levitre, unplugged:
"Well, this week has been pretty busy for me.
Waking up around 5:30 am for the last three days and going to sleep around midnight really takes a toll on your body which I am sure most people participating in the Combine found out after day one.
The hotel we stayed at was on lock down 24/7 and you needed a special pass in order to get past the security points.
This was one of the most hectic weeks that I have ever had.
The first day of the Combine consisted of a Cybex test which tests the strengths in your hamstrings and quads for each leg to make sure that you don't have any issues from past injuries. .. the day also consisted of going to the local hospital and getting some things done, like: urinalysis, blood tests, injury history's, X-Rays and heart scans which took about two hours for it all.
We also had some informal meetings with some coaches and scouts.
That was the easiest part of the entire four days.
On Day 2 we had 5 a.m. drug testing which was the beginning of a long day.
After drug testing we had breakfast and headed across the street to Lucas Oil Stadium where we were going to do our official height and weight.
I ended up taking a detour to that because I had to get an MRI on my knee that was only supposed to take 40 minutes but ended up taking me about two hours to complete because the doctor felt he needed photos to cover more of my knee.
I ended up missing my weigh-ins and tagging along with the Tight Ends and then getting a late start on my orthopedic exams. Everyone was carrying a large manila envelope with their X-Rays in them to show the doctors.
There were six stations set up with about 5-6 team doctors/trainers at each station to examine each player. First we started out with a general medical check up by team doctors and also had a vision test. The general doctor saw that I had a resting heart rate of 40 beats per minute which is very low for a guy my size who measured in at 6-2½, 305 lbs. so they sent me to get a stress echo which is an ultrasound of your heart.
They hooked up a bunch of wires to my chest and had me run on a treadmill for ten minutes then I hopped on a table and they did the ultrasound to make sure my heart was pumping correctly which it was.
Then we met with the orthopedic doctors. This was the weirdest thing for me to go through. There is a circle of doctors surrounding a table and each player takes a turn hopping up on the table then they put your X-rays up on the lights and pull up any other material like MRI's.
Then, these doctors start to come up and look at your medical history and start tugging on your arms and legs like you are a piece of meat and then they turn away with their voice recorders and remind themselves of any notes that they had about you.
After doing this about six times it was about three o'clock in the afternoon.
I went back up to my room to take a nap for about an hour before dinner.
I ate dinner and then went back across the street for some more formal interview where I met with half of the NFL teams whether it was an offensive line coach or another position coach or even some scouts just so that they could collect some background information on me.
One of the big things coaches do is try and quiz you by having you draw up a play you ran or have you remember a play they draw up and the flipping it and seeing if you can remember.
Day 3 was our first chance to compete.We had to wake up at 6 a.m. this morning because we had to eat breakfast and then take our Wonderlic Test. I felt like the test went well for me since I answered 42 of the 50 possible questions in the allotted time of twelve minutes.
I feel like I at least answered 30 of the questions correct and the average for lineman is usually around 25.
After this test we went over to meet with the Players Association (NFLPA) to talk about things like the collective bargaining agreement and inform us about how they were created to help fight back for players and give them a voice to the NFL's General Managers and such.
It was a very interesting meeting and I also had a similar meeting in Mobile at the Senior Bowl.
When we finished the meeting we headed to the psychological testing area.
The tests are basically to find out what kind of person you are on the inside and make sure you aren't crazy or going to cause trouble.
The one test that got on my nerves a little was the test given by the New York Giants which consisted of 260, yes that is TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY questions plus another packet of 70 short answer questions after you finished that.
When I finished this I had the chance to speak with the offensive line coaches from both the Chicago Bears and the Dallas Cowboys for a little bit and talk about some football and draw up some more plays and explain the rules of the plays.
My next stop was to the bench press which was our first chance to put up some numbers for the coaches and show our strength. I usually don't get nervous before big events but for some reason I just couldn't hold it back. I was pretty pumped to get up there on stage and bench press in from of offensive line coaches, head coaches and GM's.
I ended up putting up 225 pounds 23 times which isn't necessarily bad but it isn't a great number.
While I was benching I was so focused on my workout that the strength coach yelling at me and the players screaming from the side were muted out of my hearing.
After this I met with my agent and my trainer and warmed-up lightly for Saturday's big event which consists of a lot of running.
This was my only day of scheduled formal interviews. I had twelve interviews. The teams that I met with were: Tennessee Titans, Houston Texans, Carolina Panthers, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, Washington Redskins, Miami Dolphins, Indianapolis Colts, San Diego Chargers, New York Jets, New York Giants, and the Oakland Raiders.
Most of these meetings were conducted in a similar manner. They asked about my family background and personal information then got into some football related questions and also either had me draw up some plays or even put some film on the television and had me critique myself or explain in detail what the play is that we were running.
Also during some of the interviews I had the chance to put in a good word for some of my old teammates. I spoke with Andy Reid from the Eagles and Mike Tomlin from the Steelers about the Rodgers brothers and they were asking me what it was like blocking for those guys and about how great college careers they have been having thus far.
I told some teams about Stephen Paea and how great of a player he is and how under-rated he has been so far. The meetings were great and went very smooth.
Well today was Day 4 and it was time to show off my athleticism.
It was a culmination of all of the hard work that I have had since I was a freshman in high school. All those drills that we worked on were now finally going to be tested at the highest level in the world.
We started off with some mobility and flexibility tests to show off our athleticism.
Next was our 40-yard dash. My first attempt, I tried to start to early so I was called back for a retry. My first run went alright but I felt like my start was a little slow but my second run ended up being better and recorded as 5.24 seconds.
Next we moved over to position drills where I felt very good being able to show off my versatility by taking pass sets and pulling from a left and right handed stance.
My best position drill I felt was the mirror drill which I feel I did a good job keeping my feet moving and had my eyes on my target the entire time.
Next was the vertical jump, this ended up being one of my best events on the day. I ended up jumping 30" on my first jump and got another half an inch on my second jump to make it 30.5".
I ended up being tied for 8th or 9th place overall for offensive lineman in this drill.
The next one was the broad jump which I thought I could have done better on but ended up not doing too bad. I ended up with my best jump being 8'7". Next I went over to do the 5-10-5 shuttle. The shuttle wasn't great for me because it took me about 7 tries to complete the drill.
On one of mine where I just barely missed the line I was told by someone in the stands timing me that they had me at a 4.38 seconds which would have put me at the second best for lineman in the drill but I ended up recording a time of 4.54 which was still the fifth overall best for lineman.
By the time I finished this drill I had to take off to catch my plane which left at 4 p.m. because it was already 2:30 so I decided that I would run my 3-cone drill at pro day in Corvallis.
I cut it so close to make my flight that I didn't even have time to shower before I hopped on the plane to come back to Denver.
I ended up making my flight on time and now I am back in Denver for another week before I head back to Corvallis to finish my training for Pro Day.
Thank you for taking the time to learn about the experiences that I am having.
It has been a great to have the chance to be doing these things to prepare for the NFL since there are only a select few people every year that get the chance to do this.
I hope you all enjoyed reading my blogs as much as I have enjoyed writing them.''
- Andy Levitre
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