Help me again -- Why Is Pro Day A Thing?

I don't have that much of a problem with it as I used to .. heck, Pro Day usually produces a pretty good story.

But tell me why basically a job audition takes precedence over games that actually count, other than page views.

Just want to hear the great voices of this distinguished board.

 

Page views. Thats exactly it. Same reason State U’s mediocre mens basketball game gets covered over a volleyball playoff game, its what the readers care about.

People/readers love football. They love the NFL. They seemingly cant get enough of either.

Sure if youre covering Minnesota-Duluth you do a hockey game over pro day but at most places pro day will be the biggest thing going on and if youre at an Alabama or a Michigan etc its prob the biggest story of the month

 

Endless speculation about the NFL draft has a mass audience. I dunno why, but I know it exists and that it's big. Pro Days give it speculation material.

 

Like the NFL Combine a month earlier wasn't enough? And what could one possibly learn in these events that wasn't seen in game films?

 

My particular favorite is the overrated line slob who started one game in college but had a 4 star rating, so he's there running a 5.4 40 and talking about how good it felt.

 

Any number of players either aren't invited to the combine or skip it due to health reasons or because their agent says they should.

 

When hiring a reporter, does a newspaper solely hire based on résumé strength, or do they conduct a phone interview and bring the candidate to town for another interview? Game film is like the résumé, while the combine and pro days are the interviews. Not only that, but when teams are investing millions of dollars into these players, they want to be as confident as possible in their selections.

 

Thank Tebow I never had to take the Wonderlich.

 

So the football SID can tell which beat you value more ... the football team, or covering the basketball team playing in the out-of-state conference tournament at the exact same time.

 

The obsession with football. But I tend to agree...I'd rather cover a game or feature a player participating in the pro day, rather than covering the pro day as an event.

 

I always turn pro day into a feature on a player, typically the ones with the best chance of actually making it pro. Just seems like the natural angle to take for an otherwise boring event to me.