NFL insider notebook: Senior Bowl prospect measurements, weigh-ins will now be held in private setting
Annual Senior Bowl tradition is no more as players will be measured privately

The annual Senior Bowl tradition of having the week's prospects get weighed-in and measured in front of hundreds of NFL evaluators and media is no more.
Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy told CBS Sports Sunday it will close this week's national scouting weigh-in to all but those doing the measurements. It follows an under-the-radar announcement Nagy made in mid-November.
"We felt it was best that weigh-ins be held in a more private setting during our player registration process," Nagy said via email, "and it also allowed us to create two additional hours of scheduled interview time for the teams and players on Tuesday morning."
For years, the Senior Bowl has held its weigh-ins inside the Mobile Convention Center on the Exhibit Hall level. NFL scouts and personnel fill the bleachers (or more recently, seats) set up inside the area and media members mill around. Senior Bowl participants are walked across the stage in compression shorts or pants to be weighed and measured. These measurements — height, weight, hand, arm and wingspan among them — are called out over the loud speaker as scouts record the figures.
Eric Galko, the director of football operations for the East-West Shrine Bowl, announced the Shrine Bowl's decision to do away with the public measurements in a Nov. 17 tweet. He called it an "antiquated, unnecessary process."
Second overdue @ShrineBowl announcement:
— Eric Galko (@EricGalko) November 17, 2021
We will not be having a "Weigh-In Event" that have been at All-Star Games. Players will be weighed/measured upon arrival instead.
I believe it's an antiquated, unnecessary process. Our players, NFL teams, media can better use that time.
In a reply tweet, Nagy said the Senior Bowl informed the NFL league office of a similar decision on the same day of the Shrine Bowl's announcement but didn't feel the need to publicize their decision.
Those decisions came less than three weeks after the Netflix miniseries "Colin in Black & White" premiered, which opens with executive producer Colin Kaepernick comparing the pre-draft measurement event and subsequent workouts to a slave auction.
The Kaepernick drama series premiered on Netflix on Oct. 29. The opening scene sees Kaepernick, the former 49ers quarterback and face the wave of protests against police brutality and racial injustice during the national anthem, explaining the pre-draft workouts.
"Coaches will tell you they're looking for warriors, killers, beasts. They say they want you to be an animal out there. And you want to give them that," Kaepernick says to the camera. "Let me tell you something: What they don't want you to understand is what's being established is a power dynamic.
"Before they put on the field, teams poke, prod and examine you. Searching for any defect that might affect your performance. No boundary respected. No dignity left intact."
The Black players step off the platform field and are transported back to the 19th century auction block, where in chains they step up and are sold to the highest bidder. The scene closes with the slave auctioneer shaking hands with a modern-day football coach.
Senior Bowl practices begin Tuesday with the game scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
















