Sooners Share Thoughts on NFL Draft

NORMAN, Okla. -- The 2005 NFL Draft is less than two weeks away with the opening rounds scheduled to begin on Satuday, April 23, in New York City.

Oklahoma is expected to have a sizable class of players drafted by the time all seven rounds are completed on Sunday, April 24.

Mark Bradley will share his thoughts leading up to the Draft with Sooner fans at SoonerSports.com.

Mark Bradley on the NFL Combine
The NFL Combine was stressful -- and it's designed to be that way. You're on your feet constantly. And you're never able to relax. You really have to be focused mentally the entire time. It's all to see how you respond under pressure. Not only the physical part, but the business end of it, too.

2005 OU NFL Draft Central | Sooners in the NFL Draft | OU in the NFL

You fly to Indianapolis and there's personnel there to get you to your shuttle. The shuttle takes you to the hotel which is right there next to the dome. You get there and they give you all the stuff you're going to wear. You get a shirt which has your position on it and then your number in your group. I was No. 1. You basically get a sweatshirt, a workout shirt and some shorts. You bring your own shoes -- the shoes you want to run in.

After that, you head to the hospital and they do all sorts of tests on you. There's were these color-coded pieces of tape that you followed around the hospital to each of your different stations. First, I talked to doctors and they went over all my injuries. They took x-rays, tested my heart, took my blood pressure -- stuff like that. They put me on a machine to test my legs to see if they're about the same strength.

After the hospital, you had meetings with all the coaches. They told you why you were there, what they're looking for. You ended up sitting down and talking with teams every night. I probably had eight to ten teams a night. 15 minutes per session.

That first day, I was up to catch the plane about 7 a.m. and didn't get to sleep until midnight.

They woke us up at 4 a.m. to start our second day. We headed to take physicals. They checked everything. Every doctor worked every body part you might have injured in the past. They knew injuries from back in junior high and Pop Warner. After you get through all that, you were pretty sore. Every doctor was trying to see if you were looser in certain areas, if you were grinding or if there was any popping. Some teams would ask for MRIs. They basically treated you like a piece of meat. But, with that much money involved, the teams are entitled to get a complete and accurate physical look at the prospects.

After the medical part of it, they took you to another area like a stage. You had to strip down to just shorts and socks. In front of the stage was a series of chairs -- like a theater. All the coaches and GMs were sitting there looking at you. They had little microphones they talked into as you walked around. They called your name out and the school you came from. They measured your hands and then you had to go stand on a platform to measure your height. Then they weighed you and they did a fat test.

Again that night, you had interview sessions with the teams.

On the third day, they tested your mind. They performed psychological tests on you. Some were written tests, some were verbal, some were physical. They had questions like: If a cashier gave you too much change, would you return the money? Then, they'd play with your mind. You'd go into their room and they'd act like they didn't know anything. You walked in and they would ask you your name and what position you played. Then they acted like they don't know what a wide receiver is. You had to explain it to them. They asked me where I played and I told them Oklahoma. They made me explain Oklahoma.

So, it's all on purpose. I guess some guys might get frustrated. But, I just played along.

Do you remember those little pop-up dolls? They had a spring and you'd push them down and they'd pop up? They would make you sit there and have your open hand six inches from the table. You'd be staring at this little pop-up doll and it would go flying and you'd have to try and grab it. They'd say things like, "You're not good enough to catch this little pop-up doll so why are you here trying to play football?" It was crazy. They'd keep saying, "It's just a little pop-up thing!" It kinda started to get on my nerves. I just played along with them.

Another test was tossing bean bags in a little can. They made you wear glasses with slants so when you looked through them, you were actually looking two feet off to one side. They'd make you throw things wearing those glasses.

There was one test with a little square platform that had buzzers on the bottem. They had a chart that stood up in front of you. Every time the light lit up in a certain area, you had to react and lean that way. To top that off, they twisted the platform sideways and messed with your head.

There were word lists like cat, monkey, boat, sunshine -- things like that you had to remember. Then, they'd introduce a new set of words. You'd be concentrating on the new set and they'd end up asking you to recite the first set. There were pictures you looked at and tried to remember all the items in the image. Like a woman holding a shirt, a guy pouring milk, a child riding a bike. They gave you time to look at the picture and then you'd look at a new picture. After you'd looked at a series, you had to go back and answer questions on the images. Testing your memory.

Some of the questions were really wild. I did tests like that for about eight hours. The Giants had a test with something like 300 questions.

You broke for dinner and started another round of talking with teams.

Three days of that, and then on your fourth and final day -- you finally run, catch and perform on the field. They did it to see if you could perform under pressure and fatigue. They challenged you mentally and then physically.

They had quarterbacks and receivers mixed together in three groups. Jason White wasn't in my group but I was with Brandon Jones and Mark Clayton. We had quarterbacks like Charlie Frye from Akron, Derek Anderson from Oregon State and some receivers like Reggie Brown and Fred Gibson of Georgia, Tony Madison from Kansas State and Vincent Jackson from Northern Colorado.

The first thing we did was flexibility testing. How far you could stretch past your toes, how far you could lift a pole with your arms behind your back, things like that.

Then, we did the verticals. I had in my mind that I wanted to jump 40 but I got a 39 and a half. You can't be disappointed with that.

After that, we waited behind some running backs to run 40s. Finally, we got our chance to go. Since I was No.1, I went first in our group. There were cones lined up along the side of the field and all the coaches and GMs were in the stands watching. There was a little string at the end that timed you when you hit it.

I ran a 4.37 but I felt like I could have done better than that. I was exhausted on the plane ride home and was cramping up for the first time since I could remember. I slept most of the way back to Dallas.

After that, I took the weekend off to recover. Then, it was back to Norman for class and to work out with Coach Schmidt and get ready for OU's Pro Day.

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SoonerSports.com will run several features on OU prospects prior to the 2005 NFL Draft on April 23-24.

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