2011 NFL Scouting Combine: Day 2 Non-Football Observations

The second day of the NFL Combine started on a sour note for me, as I had to dig myself out of about 6" of snow, then sit in traffic as gawkers stared at a cop car on the side of I-65, so I got there a few minutes after 10:00 this morning.  Thankfully, all the NFL speakers weren't that interesting to us, with Gary Kubiak being the highlight, but still not required listening, like several others were yesterday.

Our seats were once again in prime real-estate, as we sat right in the middle of all the ESPN NFL bloggers.  Bill Williamson, AFC West blogger, sat right across from us, and is a great guy.  He talked about how Gil Brandt still calls him "St. Paul", even though he moved from St. Paul over 7 years ago.  He also had to tell someone he couldn't do an interview due to ESPN policy, and SI's Don Banks asked how he could get that policy too.  Paul Kuharsky, who covers the AFC South, sat behind us once again, along with several other ESPN bloggers.  I hope to interview Paul tomorrow about his feelings on the Colts.

Also sitting across from us was a writer for the Sporting News (and I can't remember his name), who was also very friendly.  He used to be a beat writer for the Broncos, as was telling us stories all day.  I especially enjoyed the one about "Clinton Claus", where Clinton Portis came out for about a 30 second press conference with the local media, after spending at least an hour with television reporters.

Collin sat next to Bob Kravitz of the Indy Star, but they talked almost exclusively about the Pacers.  He found out that he was there to write a story on Cam Newton, who didn't show up today.  We might get to see him again tomorrow.

Like yesterday towards the end of the day, we started to hear random yells and screams from the rafters.  We finally figured out that the weight room must be nearby, but that didn't stop the jokes from coming.  At one point today, it got so bad it sounded like somebody was seriously in pain.  Banks had the best line: "Adam Schefter must have lost his Blackberry".

We got the same sandwiches we did yesterday.  They also didn't bring any drinks back out until almost 4:30, causing both Collin and me to spend $4 on a coke.  Thanks Lucas Oil Stadium.  The $5 we had to spend to park wasn't enough?  We did get cookies today though, which is a positive.

There haven't been too many off-the-wall questions, but there were a few.  A Japanese reporter asked Alabama RB Mark Ingram if he was ready to be an international star, and John Moffitt was asked about the political situation in Wisconsin, which clearly made him uncomfortable.

The highlight of the day was clearly shooting the shit with ESPN's John Clayton, who couldn't have been more friendly.  He let us fire questions away at him, and he kept coming back with story after story.  It was great, and he didn't care we were random bloggers.  I think he was just happy he didn't have to keep standing outside the labor talks, to only hear DeMaurice Smith not answer anything.  I really hope he ends up by us tomorrow as well, as I could listen to him tell stories all day long.