If the NFL Combine was on television 20 years ago, you may want to watch it for different reasons then you would watch it today. When you tuned in on February 26th to check the newest draft class, you will see fit, cut, and well trained athletes performing several different skill tests with ease. 20 years ago however, you would have witnessed some of the ugliest flabbiest bodies that would make you puke. You would witness multiple stumbles on 40 starts and highly rated draft picks tripping over their feet through the 3 cone drill.

So what has changed? The agent community started investing into preparing draftees for the Combine. One of the first pioneering agents was none other than Bruce Allen, now GM of the Redskins. Bruce started training his first draft class in 1986 with Warren Anderson of Makeplays.com who is still in business today. When IMG was in the football representation business they had a whole campus located in Bradenton, Florida dedicated to training all their athletes in all sports.

Along with pre-combine specific training, these facilities also offer many services such as: nutrition, massage, and chiropractic. In addition to the paying for the services, the agents must also supply housing, transportation and even “walking around money”. It’s not unusual for one agent to invest over $100,000 dollars to train 4 to 5 clients for 8 weeks.

The effect of this investment is better conditioned and better prepared rookies headed into camp. And most of these athletes continue to use trainers, massage, nutrition, and chiropractic for the remainder of their NFL careers.