How many players exaggerate their heights?

Pompous Elitist

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Surprising only in that I would have guessed 100%.

From Yahoo:

On a yearly basis, NFL prospects end up being significantly shorter than what they were listed by their universities. With all 337 prospects at this year's combine measured, we aimed to find out just how many were considerably shorter than the heights their schools listed them at during the 2018 season.

We approached it sort of like a high school science experiment. We had a hypothesis that players at certain positions where height is valued — like quarterback, receiver, cornerback, offensive and defensive line — would, on the whole, not be as tall as listed. In many cases, that turned out to be fairly true. A lot of schools like to round up.

Based on the measurements obtained at the combine by Yahoo Sports NFL writer Charles Robinson, some schools round up to the nearest inch. Some rounded up even more.

All 337 NFL prospects are in the PDF below with their listed heights and weights and their heights and weights as measured at the NFL combine. A player with an asterisk in front of his name had a difference of a half-inch or more between his listed height and his actual height. There are 169 asterisks among the 337 entries, meaning more than 50 percent of the combine participants are at least a half-inch shorter than how they were presented on their school’s roster.

https://sports.yahoo.com/many-nfl-c...-than-listed-on-college-roster-013654441.html
 

Wait, so you're saying people shouldn't always believe the heights and the weights listed on the official roster?
 

As someone who has stood on the sidelines with the team during practice.... at that moment I feel like they're underestimating.
 

What's the benefit in putting an incorrect height or weight on your roster? It can't be to help the player get to the NFL because it's so easily verified during the combine process. Is it to intimidate the opponent? Stroke the ego of the player? I guess I don't see the purpose.
 

I remember telling my son to exaggerate this stuff for the roster as he entered the world of high school football. Very common and something that has been done for a LONG time. Passing along this age-old tradition to my son made we wonder if it was like a cat bringing home a wounded mouse for its kitten to practice/learn steps to becoming an adult cat.

I do think some coaches add sort of a "speed governor" in how far they let their players push it. I can always tell how tight of a ship the coach runs by how ridiculously off the height/weight numbers appear on the roster.
 


What's the benefit in putting an incorrect height or weight on your roster? It can't be to help the player get to the NFL because it's so easily verified during the combine process. Is it to intimidate the opponent? Stroke the ego of the player? I guess I don't see the purpose.

I suspect it is purely monkey see monkey do. Maybe in high school someone thinks it gets you more attention recruiting wise as they can't really verify it until the crooter shows up... but otherwise I suspect it is silly tradition done for tradition's sake. I agree there really is no apparent advantage.

In the end I think players like it (even if it means nothing) and hell why not fudge some height to make the player happy?
 

I suspect it is purely monkey see monkey do. Maybe in high school someone thinks it gets you more attention recruiting wise as they can't really verify it until the crooter shows up... but otherwise I suspect it is silly tradition done for tradition's sake. I agree there really is no apparent advantage.

In the end I think players like it (even if it means nothing) and hell why not fudge some height to make the player happy?

Seems extremely stupid.
 


I think most people round up on their height if it is on the half-inch...5'9 1/2" becomes 5'10".
 



Wait, so you're saying people shouldn't always believe the heights and the weights listed on the official roster?

This reminds me of the story where John Randle bought a chain to wrap around his waist and make weight.
 

This reminds me of the story where John Randle bought a chain to wrap around his waist and make weight.

Undrafted to college and NFL HOF.

Barney Fife did it as well to make weight in order to stay a deputy.
 


Your own description describes it as not having any impact. That doesn't seem "extremely stupid", just no impact.

It's stupid because why waste the time putting out fake information to your fans? It makes no sense.
 




Certain positions have less incentive to exaggerate height. OL for example, you don’t want to be too tall. Punter and kicker. To some extent RBs. WRs who are already 6’1” or more probably don’t gain anything by exaggerating their height.
 

At the HS level, every coach handles it differently. I've know coaches who just asked the players, and wrote down whatever the players said. And, I've known coaches who deliberately bumped up heights and weights to make the roster look more impressive.

I see a lot of guys who are listed at, say 180 for football, and wind up wrestling at 160 in the winter. I don't think they cut 20 lbs - so the football roster weight was inflated.

And there's a kid who was on a local HS basketball team I covered this year. They listed him at 6'4" on the roster. He's maybe 6'1" on a good day.

So, I tend to pay very little attention to program heights and weights. most of them are more suggestions than fact.
 

I mean, I am 6'-2 5/8" but I round up to 6'-3", does this make me a bad person?

i briefly read through that list and nothing jumped out to me, most seemed to all be in an "acceptable" range.
 

At the HS level, every coach handles it differently. I've know coaches who just asked the players, and wrote down whatever the players said. And, I've known coaches who deliberately bumped up heights and weights to make the roster look more impressive.

I see a lot of guys who are listed at, say 180 for football, and wind up wrestling at 160 in the winter. I don't think they cut 20 lbs - so the football roster weight was inflated.

And there's a kid who was on a local HS basketball team I covered this year. They listed him at 6'4" on the roster. He's maybe 6'1" on a good day.

So, I tend to pay very little attention to program heights and weights. most of them are more suggestions than fact.


Maybe they measured him at higher altitude or something?
 

At the HS level, every coach handles it differently. I've know coaches who just asked the players, and wrote down whatever the players said. And, I've known coaches who deliberately bumped up heights and weights to make the roster look more impressive.

I see a lot of guys who are listed at, say 180 for football, and wind up wrestling at 160 in the winter. I don't think they cut 20 lbs - so the football roster weight was inflated.

And there's a kid who was on a local HS basketball team I covered this year. They listed him at 6'4" on the roster. He's maybe 6'1" on a good day.

So, I tend to pay very little attention to program heights and weights. most of them are more suggestions than fact.

A few wrestlers can chime in, but at that weight, cutting 20 lbs in that amount of time is more common than you think. Had a HS friend who would go from around 140-145 to 126.
 

What's the benefit in putting an incorrect height or weight on your roster? It can't be to help the player get to the NFL because it's so easily verified during the combine process. Is it to intimidate the opponent? Stroke the ego of the player? I guess I don't see the purpose.
I think this is more true for college prospects than the NFL, but height and weight (frame) can determine whether college coaches will take the time to evaluate players. If a player is on the lower end of the desired measurements, and inch in height might factor whether they take the time to evaluate a prospect. But exceptionally large players’ play will almost always get evaluated on video b/c of their size, even though they may suck (relatively).

They’ll figure it out when they meet the player in person, but by that time they may have already formulated an opinion.
 

I mean, I am 6'-2 5/8" but I round up to 6'-3", does this make me a bad person?

i briefly read through that list and nothing jumped out to me, most seemed to all be in an "acceptable" range.

They only asterisked the players that fibbed > half inch.
 






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