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Close your eyes and imagine a real-life flesh market in which the entries are ogled by over 900 pairs of closely scrutinizing eyes. Where the questions in the private interview sessions include "Have you ever considered killing your mother or father?" and not the standard "How might we achieve world peace?" Where the participants are awakened at 6 a.m. and loaded with high-carb breakfasts, then eventually stumble to their rooms at 11 p.m. loaded down with 20 souvenir T-shirts and a dozen baseball caps sporting team logos.

One in which the annual talent competition is convened in a domed stadium and against the clock. And where the swimsuit category, in which pudgy is preferred over petite, permits the kind of poking, pinching and probing that might be considered harassment in another place and time.

In a nutshell, that pretty much sums up the NFL's annual pre-draft combine workouts -- known to most scouts and personnel directors simply as "The Combine" -- that began here Thursday and run through Monday afternoon. By the time the quarterbacks and wide receivers finish their workouts in the RCA Dome late Monday, some 327 prospects for the 2000 draft will have paraded through a variety of tests and procedures.

Make no mistake about it, the combine workouts define the term "meat on the hoof." And how a prospect performs here during the three-day process to which all players are subjected can often mean the difference between steak and hamburger at contract time.

"At the (college) all-star games, general managers from around the league talked to us and told us we should treat this as the equivalent of a job interview," said Georgia Tech star Joe Hamilton, an undersized (5-feet-10) quarterback who demonstrated at the Senior Bowl that his lack of height might not be a major problem but who must perform well here to enhance his draft profile. "It's a chance to meet every important person in a decision-making role in the NFL, to do it in the same place, and to try to make a good impression. A lot of guys think it's (tedious), and I'm sure it can be that way. Me, I view it as another opportunity to get myself in front of the people who have a chance to decide my future. I'm not holding anything back. This is a big thing for me."

The biggest things in the combine, the behemoth offensive linemen, began arriving Thursday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, directly across the street from the RCA Dome. Their stay will be for three days: some preliminary testing, like on the Cybex machine, which measures leg strength, on Thursday; a physical examination that, depending upon a player's injury history, can take as long as eight hours, on Friday; and then, on Saturday, the on-field drills pertinent to their position.

The players arrive according to position, with the quarterbacks and wide receivers not due in here until Saturday and not scheduled for their pitch-and-catch session until Monday.

Unlike the opportunistic Hamilton, most prospects view the combine as a necessary evil. Because the agents prefer that their clients work out for NFL scouts on campus, where they insist that the players are more comfortable, the combine has become less about the physical elements and more about gauging a player's mindset.

Over the past decade, the number of prospects who complete all the various phases of the process has consistently diminished. Count on between 30-40 percent of the 327 players from this year's list of invitees, most of them players who project as high-round selections, taking the physical examination and then skipping the on-field drills like the 40-yard dash.

The reluctance of players to complete all the workouts is nettlesome to personnel directors. The brainchild of longtime NFL personnel man Ken Herock, the combine was originally intended to help teams curb their scouting budgets. Getting all the top prospects in one place, he theorized, would eliminate having scouts scatter all over the country to compile workouts. But in its second decade, the combine has lost some of that intent. Teams now spend over $1 million on scouting, much of it devoted to travel, because players like the campus workouts more.

An old-school scout, and one of the few personnel directors who still hits the road every fall to watch college games and work out players on campus, Herock has become pragmatic about the combine now. The emphasis, he allowed, has changed dramatically.

"No matter what we do," he said, "we're not going to get all these guys to finish the workout. So now the important things are the physical exams and the personal interviews. If you're going to spend millions of dollars on a guy, you want to make sure he's square physically and mentally. The workout stuff, yeah, you can get that on campus."

The physical exams, at nearby Methodist Hospital, which keeps its X-ray lab open 24 hours a day to handle the volume precipitated by the combine, can be daunting to players. Each team sends its orthopedic specialist and entire training staff here. So a player who has experienced a significant injury in the course of his college career can expect to be poked and probed by perhaps hundreds of hands. Should any of the doctors raise a red flag over a player, the prospect might be sent back for additional X-rays.

"Getting through the physical exam," said former Alabama defensive tackle Shannon Brown, who in 1996 spent nearly 10 hours with the doctors, "is the toughest part. The ridiculous part is all the psychological testing teams do now."

The New York Giants, for instance, administer a 500-question personality profile to all players. Or at least the ones they can get to visit their headquarters here. Teams now have taken to videotaping their individual interviews with players. Most assistant coaches are given a list of 20-25 prospects to interview. The Washington Redskins are using wide receiver Irving Fryar, who spent some time as a weekend sports reporter before he un-retired to join them in 1999, to conduct their interviews.

"We figure players will relate well to him, that he'll speak their language," personnel man Vinny Cerrato said. "Now if he could just convince them to work out."

Don't expect Peter Warrick to get on the field for workouts during the combine.(AP)

Not even the latest starting date in recent combine history is likely to sway potential No. 1 picks like wide receiver Peter Warrick (Florida State) or linebacker LaVar Arrington and defensive end Courtney Brown, both of Penn State, to get onto the field for the workouts. Players used to complain they didn't have enough recovery time between the postseason banquets and the combine to get back in shape for the critical workouts. This year will likely render those excuses lame. The other excuse, that the RCA Dome has a notoriously slow track that inflates the 40-yard clockings, certainly has more legitimacy.

Said general manager Charley Casserly of the new Houston expansion franchise: "Even with the late date, two full weeks later than usual, I doubt we'll see an appreciable increase in the number of players who work out. It's hard to convince kids that it's in their best interests."

That said, this city becomes the center of the NFL universe for the next five days, with 31 teams sending between 30-40 people each. The sheer volume of NFL officials and players walking the streets here can be intimidating. Still, it is a chance for players from the same conference to renew acquaintances, and for some players to assure their NFL fortunes.

Two years ago, Ryan Leaf was so standoffish that his attitude should have been a warning to the teams interested in him. Eleven years ago, Deion Sanders blistered a 4.28 clocking in the 40, and the performance earned a standing ovation from the characteristically staid scouts. In between, there have been fortunes made and futures broken at the combine workouts.

Said offensive tackle Chris Samuels of Alabama, projected as the top lineman in the 2000 draft: "The scouts like to say that you can't hurt yourself with a bad performance as much as you can help yourself with a good one. I don't know if that's true or not. I just know that these next few days are pretty critical for anyone who wants to play in the league."