The NFL Scouting Combine: A history of the largest NFL pre-Draft event
The NFL fans alike gather in person or around a television to witness something unique to football. Football is not the only sport that conducts a “Combine” to put incoming rookies through interviews, drills, medical evaluations and mental tests. However, it is the only sport where the “Combine” has become must-see TV.
Also known as the National Invitational Camp (NIC), the combine like everything else has a history. The four day football evaluation did not begin as the television event it is now. Just like the images of the NFL Draft decades ago, the combine used to be a small affair. Before 1976, the combine did not exist.
In the pre-1970s, NFL teams rarely conducted any sort of physical assessment of potential incoming college players. During that same period, the NFL Draft was also 17 rounds. Not the seven rounds it is today.
The NFL Combine in today's world
The first implementation any sort of physical assessment was actually started by the New York Jets who in 1976 invited prospects to their headquarters to be interviewed and tested.
“Besides character and intelligence, the other non-football thing we put a premium on is the medical aspect,” Mike Hickey, the Jets’ director of player personnel, wrote in a column for The New York Times in April 1983. “We attempt to have every player we are interested in have an orthopedic physical by our team physicians.”
The early days of what would eventually become the Scouting Combine were just a series of visits. The opposite of pro day visits we have now. Instead of all the scouts and front office personnel travelling to Florida’s pro day or USC’s pro day, the prospects would travel to the respective NFL cities to be tested.
The process was complicated and expensive. In the early 1980s, Dallas Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm recommended to the NFL’s competition committee that teams should work together to “centralize the evaluation process”.
The first Combine took place in 1982 in Tampa, Florida. That first Combine included 16 teams and 163 players. The number of invitees has doubled over time to around 300 over the last decade plus.
More: 2026 NFL combine: Full list of draft prospects
Initially there were three groups of camps. The Indianapolis-based National Football Scouting Inc (NFS), BLESTO and Quadra Scouting. In 1985, all three camps were merged to save on operating costs. The central location in 1985 was Phoenix, Arizona. The central location for 1986 was New Orleans, Louisiana, however, in 1987 the venue was moved to Indianapolis where it has remained ever since.
Over time more and more aspects were added to the process. Just like the old NFL Drafts consisted of a closed-door operation not open to the fans, so was the Combine. As the Combine itself evolved, so did the public’s interest in it.
More: How the NFL Scouting Combine got its name: Schedule, history and origins of the biggest NFL Draft event
The first ever televised NFL Scouting Combine didn’t occur until 22 years after its inaugural event in 1982. In 2004 the then new NFL Network aired six one-hour end of the day recaps on the events of the Combine. In 2005, those one hour recaps became two hour recaps. In 2006 and 2007 the Combine coverage grew to over 25 hours of television coverage.
In the 2020s, the Combine is viewed as the second largest and most important event in the pre-draft process. Second only to the NFL Draft itself. Today, the combine evaluations are critical to the work NFL teams do on these prospects. Game tape will always be No. 1, but right behind the in game evaluations is the NFL Scouting Combine.
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How to watch 2026 NFL scouting combine
The NFL Combine can be live streamed wioth Fubo, which offers a free trial. NFL Network will also broadcast the Combine on NFL+, the league's paid subscription service.