Wondering About the Wonderlic

Every year the Wonderlic scores come out some time between the Combine the NFL Draft. A huge deal is made from the results of this test, and there are several issues I have a problem with.

First off, does it really matter? One observation I made is that many times you see QBs and OLs at the top of the board, with WRs and DBs do really poorly. Does that mean the former group is a better group of NFL players? Not necessarily. The latter group of players might not do as well (I don't have statistical evidence so you'll have to just believe me), but include some of the most dynamic athletes the sports has ever seen.

In fact, it sometimes appears that the most gifted athletes don't do so well on the exam. Vince Young famously scored a 6 on the test, yet he has been a winner (albeit a below average passer) at the next level. Frank Gore did poorly as well due to a learning disability, and he is a superb NFL back. Our own local hero Dan Marino scored in the low double-digits I believe. He turned out alright.

Casting that argument aside, let's pretend that the score actually is worth a damn. A 20 is the average person's intelligence. I've seen sample Wonderlic tests. How anybody scores below a 30 is beyond my comprehension. We're talking simple questions like how many months have 31 days in them. Sure, stuff like that might trip you up once or twice, or even cause you to rethink your answers and not finish the timed exam.

Regardless, nobody should do worse than a 20, especially "educated student-athletes". Kenny Phillips scored a 16. Doesn't make the U look too great. Andre Caldwell got like a 12, that's a quality UF education right there. I totally understand where many of these athletes are coming from in terms of K-12 education, but if they can't answer simple problem solving questions, what exactly are they doing in an accredited university?

That's not to say they don't deserve the higher education. On the contrary, more inner city kids need a chance at a degree. But what it does do is reveal what a farce NCAA football is when they create all these rules and regulations based on what the NCAA deems as "student athletes". These kids are not students. They are mercenaries for hire. Most of them wouldn't be able to get into a university on their own merit and are there for the sole purpose of making that school money while improving their personal draft stocks. The shameful scores on the Wonderlic test illustrate this clearly to me.

What I'd like to see is some sort of change. Either toss the Wonderlic out the window because it really doesn't translate on the field (Frank Gore can't finish a test without extra time but he can read a playbook and a defense just fine) or own up to the fact your "student athletes" are really just semi-pro players.

Accepting the latter would be encouraging, because these kids deserve more than an education as compensation. Clearly many of these guys aren't learning anything. Read up on Michigan, who clearly paves an easy path for football players in the classroom because it is literally impossible to be a football player and a student at the Div 1-A level. Even if they do acquire some knowledge at the college level, many players earn degrees that are effectively useless in the workforce (basket weaving), expecting to make their fortune in the NFL and putting all their eggs in one basket. Or they leave school early, don't succeed at the next level and can't afford to come back to finish their degree.

In any case, something is funky with the system. It's a bit of a tangent considering this piece was on the Wonderlic exam, but the pieces fit.