USA TODAY International Edition
NFL right to bench troubled prospects from combine
Chad Kelly had visions of showing off his rocket arm and convincing decision makers at the NFL scouting combine next week that he’s worth taking a chance on, but the Mississippi quarterback will have to wait.
Kelly’s camp is hopping mad — and he might just show up in Indianapolis, anyway — that an invitation and travel arrangements to attend the combine were rescinded by the NFL because of a relatively new policy banning prospects who have been convicted of violent crimes.
No need to criticize the NFL for the awkward pull- back of the invitation.
Kelly has no one to blame but himself.
His issue stems from an altercation outside of a Buffalo bar in 2014, when he allegedly fought with bouncers and threatened to retrieve his “AK47 and spray the place.”
He pleaded guilty to a noncriminal charge of disorderly conduct.
Remember, in the NFL court governed by Roger Goodell and a toughened personal conduct policy in the aftermath of the Ray Rice fiasco in 2014, a plea bargain counts as a conviction.
So how does Kelly get invited to the combine in the first place?
Maybe it’s another case of outsourcing, months after the Hall of Fame Game was canceled due to a shabby paint job on the field. For years, the combine has been administered by National Football Scouting, a company headed by Jeff Foster. You’d think that Foster’s group is aware of NFL policies, especially those involving hot- button issues such as domestic violence, and that a case involving a high- profile prospect like Kelly, nephew of Hall of Famer Jim Kelly, couldn’t slip through the cracks.
In any event, it comes as no surprise that the invite was flagged as a no- go.
In mid- January, Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president for football operations, sent a memo to teams outlining the combine policy, which stated that prospects won’t be permitted to participate “if a background check reveals a conviction of a felony or misdemeanor involving violence or use of a weapon, domestic violence, sexual offense and/ or sexual assault.”
That’s the simple explanation in sidelining Kelly. And the red light also extends to Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon and Baylor receiver Ishmael Zamora.
This policy is a great message that the NFL needs to keep sending. The league was hammered, and rightfully so, for its policies, Goodell’s wishy- washy application of such, and institutional culture after the Rice- Adrian Peterson- Greg Hardy trilogy.
Mixon slugged a woman and fractured her face in 2014, which led to a misdemeanor charge, season- long suspension, community service and pending civil suit. Zamora beat his dog with a belt and got a misdemeanor charge and three- game suspension.
In the big picture, the league’s combine policy should be a deterrent to college football players who might engage in foolish behavior away from the gridiron.
Going to the combine, an essential job fair where more than 300 prospects will be evaluated and interviewed by teams, is not a right. It’s a privilege.
Of course, in the win- or- else NFL, talent affords opportunity. Kelly will have a chance to wow teams during his pro day workout on April 6, and interested teams can bring him in for visits.
He’ll miss out on a convenient and efficient opportunity at the combine, but it’s the price he’ll pay, although agent Vance McAlister could bring him to Indianapolis to at least get face time outside of the combine windows.
Mixon is the best player who won’t be at the combine. His pro day workout is March 8.
Last year, the Kansas City Chiefs drafted dynamic returner-receiver Tyreek Hill from West Alabama in the fifth round, despite a domestic violence conviction that got him kicked out of Oklahoma State. Hill emerged as one of the NFL’s best rookies, and there have been no off- the- field incidents.
The Chiefs took a chance on Hill and so far, it has paid off.
While some teams might view Mixon — who tallied 26 TDs in two seasons — as a risk worth taking, the PR issue looming is fueled by video showing him punching a woman inside a pizza restaurant. How this affects Mixon’s stock will be a key subplot before the draft.
Though the NFL has a standard for combine invites, teams ultimately make their own decisions about which players they want to bring in the fold. Sometimes talent trumps the character traits that some regard as essential to fielding a winner.
A personnel director for an NFL team told USA TODAY Sports he evaluates whether to draft players such as Kelly, Mixon and Zamora on a case- by- case basis. The person requested anonymity for competitive reasons.
Some cases obviously being much harder to sell than others.