How to Work the Combine

Recently, my friends and I attended the NFL combine. I searched forever online and only found a few tips. I even emailed Kravitz, Phil B, and some other local/national sports writers. All to no avail, so we decided to go down there with our camera and wing it. Here's what we learned.

• Everyone uses the Skywalks. I never understood how the combine could survive in Indy with this weather. I thought coaches would hate it, but these Skywalks have probably been the main factor for the combine staying. You can see everyone you would want to in these hallways.
• All the Skywalks connect hotels to the convention center. It's real easy to just drift around and look for people of interest. In the Skywalks, we met John Clayton (who just stood around talking ALL DAY, it's no wonder he has so much insider info).
• Upstairs at the convention center is where most of the formal meetings happen. You can't go into the conference rooms, but you can catch coaches to and from. That's how we got a picture with Jim Caldwell.
• Downstairs is usually more quiet than upstairs, so if there are going to be any formal interviews, it's going to be down here. That's how we got a picture with Brad Childress. Also, some players use these long hallways to warm up and practice before they are tested. We were able to see University of South Caroline TE, Jared Cook. He was practicing the 40 yard dash. According to Rotoworld, he ended up leading all TE's in the 40 time, vertical leap, and broad jump.
• Around lunchtime, if you are able to afford Shula's or other similar restaurants then I would advise eating there. Unfortunately for my friends and I, we are college students so we settled for the dining court. We caught John Fox enjoying some Jody Maroni's Sausage Kingdom there.
• Early in the morning I think there might be some overall conference that everyone attends in the Luke, so we waited outside and caught John Harbaugh.
• Hotel Lobbies are also a hot spot. We caught Jim Schwartz there and barely missed Andy Reid.
• Look to avoid professional autographer seekers. They usually only focus on players, but I don't think NFL execs appreciate them.
• We generally avoided bother players though as a rule of thumb because we figured that they would need to concentrate on their chance to get their names out.

Overall, it was great. The Combine was really fan friendly and all the coaches were happy to take pictures (I secretly think Jim Schwartz was even happy to be recognized). From what I could tell we were the only people there looking to see coaches so you don't have to worry about competing with other fans. I would suggest this to anyone who wants to meet NFL coaches and others.

All the Pictures