Everyone in the (NFL Combine) pool
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The NFL Combine, which is under way at Lucas Oil Field in Indianapolis, often is compared to a cattle drive or a meat market. Scouts will be poking, prodding, weighing and measuring athletes who hope to be picked during the NFL draft to be held on April 25-26 in New York.
There are plenty of drills -- 40-yard dashes, 20-yard dashes, shuttle runs, three-cone drills, broad jumps, vertical jumps, bench presses, passing, catching ... the list seems to go on and on.
But there’s one drill that the NFL never imagined. Credit Jarron Gilbert -- a 6-foot-5, 287-pound defensive end from San Jose State -- for originality, if nothing else.
Gilbert’s amazing drill shows spectacular athleticism, although it might not be any real measure of whether he can sack an opposing quarterback.
Gilbert, who is projected to go during the second or third round, can, from a submerged position in the shallow end of a pool, leap out of the water and land on the deck.
The feat has attracted plenty of attention on youtube.com, and Gilbert told Jim Rome’s radio audience that the performance is legitimate.
Check it out. But first, a question. How does one even begin to think about perfecting such a stunt?
-- Athan Atsales
* Correction: An earlier version of this post said Gilbert attends Fresno State instead of San Jose State.
