Eagles came to NFL combine ready with mini basketball hoop originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
INDIANAPOLIS — Insert your Ben Simmons joke here.
When the Eagles packed for the combine this year, they brought with them a key piece of equipment for their meetings with NFL prospects: A mini basketball hoop.
Get Philly local news, weather forecasts, sports and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia newsletters.
Several draft hopefuls said that in their meetings with the Eagles, they have been asked to shoot free throws on the non-regulation hoop.
North Carolina quarterback Sam Howell was asked by a reporter if any bizarre questions have come his way from NFL teams. He couldn’t think of any.
“But probably the craziest thing I had to do was I walked in one meeting, I had to shoot basketballs on a mini hoop,” Howell said. “That was probably the craziest thing I had to do so far.
“It was the Eagles, they had me shoot on the mini hoop. I only made like 2 out of 5 so I’m probably not high up on their board right now.”
The free throws are an ice breaker but the Eagles are also likely using them to gauge the competitive nature of these prospects. If you remember, last year Nick Sirianni took on prospects in virtual games of rock, paper, scissors for the same purpose.
Competitiveness is a big deal to Sirianni. It’s one of his five core values.
Last April, Sirianni explained his thought process some. Sirianni said he would even talk some trash to the players to see how they’d handle it and if they’d talk trash back.
“It was awesome, though, because anything you compete at,” Sirianni said last April, “when you compete with somebody that’s completive, they’re going to go at you no matter what game you’re playing.”
There’s no doubt a mini basketball hoop can stoke those competitive flames.
Subscribe to the Eagle Eye podcast
Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | Watch on YouTube
