Former Sun Devil Brandon Magee was cool and collected at combine
Mar 1, 2013, 2:35 PM | Updated: 2:52 pm
For prospective NFL talent, the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis can be a nerve-wracking experience.
There’s the pressure of having to perform in drills — which are now televised on NFL Network. There’s the pressure of being interviewed by team officials, who are doing their best to gauge your character in a relatively short amount of time.
There is the pressure of having to take the much talked about Wonderlic Test, which is used to measure a prospective employee’s aptitude for learning and problem-solving. And there is the pressure of being poked and prodded by team doctors who want to make sure there aren’t lingering college injuries that could hamper future employment.
But for former Arizona State linebacker Brandon Magee, it was all just part of a process.
“I hardly get nervous,” Magee told Arizona Sports 620’s Doug and Wolf Thursday. “I was just casual and excited to be there.”
Magee, who led the Sun Devils with 113 tackles last season, did admit the medical review was a little much.
“I was there for about four hours and after that I had MRIs and CAT scans,” he said. “That was something else, man. You have like five or six doctors pulling on different parts of your body — it was pretty stressful.”
Magee missed the 2011 season after he ruptured his Achilles tendon in fall camp.
As far as physical performance at the combine, Magee acquitted himself nicely although he wasn’t totally pleased.
“I expected a faster 40 time,” he said. “I don’t know how I could have clocked an unofficial 4.66 and then an official 4.74 — that’s a little off, but I’ll improve it at the pro day.”
Magee’s official 40 time of 4.74 seconds was still the 13th-best among the linebackers in attendance. His overall performance bodes well for his draft prospects, according to NFL.com who had the following write-up on Magee:
He’s came (sic) back from a torn left Achilles which took away some of his speed, but he still has good agility, physicality, and instincts, which means he’ll likely hear his name called on draft day.
The combine wasn’t without its controversy. Colorado tight end Nick Kasa did a radio interview recounting his experience and revealed that several teams were asking questions about players’ personal lives.
“They ask you like, ‘Do you have a girlfriend? Are you married? Do you like girls?'” Kasa told CJ and Kreckman on ESPN Radio in Denver. “Those kinds of things. It was kind of weird. But they would ask you with a straight face, and it’s a pretty weird experience altogether.”
The league will investigate the claims by Kasa and others about the line of quesitioning, but Magee wouldn’t delve into that subject too much.
“I just saw that tight end on television because he said something, and I’m not going to be that guy.”
The linebacker did reveal that “quite a few” teams did ask those type of questions.
