Timothy Brown of Football Archaeology joins us again this week to educate us on another aspect of football. This week we chat about the a n event called the 1965 AFL Redshurt Draft, a group called LESTO and how they both may have been the stepping stones towards the modern NFL Combine.
Early Combines?
The Football Archaeology of the 1965 AFL Redshirt Draft with Timothy BrownHome ‣On This Day in Football History ‣Fun Facts about Football ‣Pigskin Professors ‣Timothy P. Brown ‣Early Combines?
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Steps Towards the NFL Combine
The NFL Combine that we see today in the late winter is quite the event. Television and radio cover every moment of it, and every team has multiple representatives, watching, unterviewing and drilling prospects that could help their franchise. The NFL as it does with everything has really hyped it up to make it a must see event for football fans. But how did it get its start?
Tim Brown may have uncovered a few items that started the ball rolling towards the Combine in LESTO and the 1965 AFL Redshirt Draft. He explains the concept of the AFL's use of Redshirt Draft and then got into an group called L.E.S.T.O. which was any earluy instance of NFL teams (Lions, Eagles & Steelers) pooling their resources to work out candidates for the draft. It really caight on and voila.. the NFL COmbine soon followed afterwards.
In the podcast episode above historian Timothy P. Brown explains who that was through his careful research through the newspapers and periodicals that carried such early gridiron coverage. Check out the original article on Tim's pages:
Today's Tidbit... The AFL's 1965 Redshirt Draft
You can learn more on Tim's posts and subscribe to his Daily Tidbits and more there too.
Credits
A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: Timothy Brown and his FootballArchaeology.com website.
Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of Football Coaches - Allentown High School - Allentown PA, Unknown author Self-scanned.