Potential National Football League players should be aware of the NFL’s new scouting techniques.
The NFL draft is taking place on April 25-26 and the players have participated in the combines, sit down interviews with teams, and took the Wonderlic test.
Even though the players have did everything they could do to become first round picks, the NFL is using a new type of scouting to find out about the player’s character.
The NFL is using social networks like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter to see what prospects do in their spare time.
NFL teams are setting up fake profiles on these Web sites and sending friend request to these players to get insight.
The teams will set up profiles with attractive women, whom they claim are fans in order to get the players to accept the request.
Once the players accept the request, the teams have full access to the player’s profile information and pictures they have put up on the Internet
If the players have the kind of information that the team may feel is negative, it could affect the players draft position and may have the prospect lose out on millions of dollars.
One instance where a team found out about a player is the Minnesota Vikings.
Minnesota Vikings vice president of Player Personnel Rick Spielman told a reporter it helped in one instance where they saw a player’s profile and he had pictures of, “a bunch of drug money and drugs on a carpet.”
He described the picture as on one of the red flags that NFL teams would like to know ahead of time.
The NFL is doing is one of the smartest things that they can. The players are an investment.
The teams are put a lot of money into these players and don’t want problems.
No one wants to draft the next Adam “Pac Man” Jones.
The team does not want to draft a guy who is in the news every other week for his bad performance off the field.
I think the NFL teams want to draft the best player available, but if the player has a history of getting in trouble they do not want to take such a big risk.
Even though teams go through extensive interviewing, who knows if these players are telling the truth?
The prospect could be sitting there telling the head coach and general manager fraudulent statements throughout the whole interview.
The fake profiles are a way for the NFL teams to protect themselves. They don’t want to invest in something that they know will let them down.
They may draft that one player with a ton of red flags and he might just go out jeopardize the reputation of their team.
That one player could be a locker room distraction and bring down the whole team.
I think the NFL is right to make sure they are making the best investment for their business.