An endless season

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | The endless football season continues with a bunch of guys wearing shorts running around a track and lifting weights in the hopes of elevating their draft rating.

The annual NFL scouting combine takes place in Indianapolis this week with college players once again being given the once over by scouts and their bosses. This is a nothing event except for football insiders, yet in the never ending sports seasons, this is a milestone for fans. Coaches talk about players.

For the invited players, a great time in the 40 yard dash, or a great showing in the weight room can literally mean hundreds of thousands of dollars, a bad workout could drop a highly ranked player down in the draft costing him hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The scouting combine gives the NFL some publicity until free agency which starts in a couple of weeks, then there is the annual owners meetings in March, the late April draft, mini camps, the June 1 roster cuts and finally July training camps.

It's an endless season because it doesn't make business sense for any sport league to be out of sight for any length of time.

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JWR contributor Evan Weiner is a radio commentator on "The Business of Sports" for Westwood One's Metro Networks. He is being presented with the United States Sports Academy's Distinguished Service Award for 2003. Comment on this column by clicking here.

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