Why are NFL players shrinking?
 

In college, tall kids are all over the place. When they leave college, they get shorter. Is this because college conditioning coaches are just that good? Do they have players so the right exercises to make them taller? Why don't NFL teams hire these guys to gain their secrets about coaching players to get tall?

What are colleges doing right? It can't be a coincidence that players are getting smaller as soon as they leave!

A few examples of this strange phenomenon:

-South Carolina's website shows that Alshon Jeffery was 6'4" all through college. By the time of the combine, he lost 1.25 inches! As a Bears fan, I'd like for the team to focus on getting him back up to 6'4" or even like 6'7" if they can.
-Alabama revealed that DJ Fluker was 6'6". By the time the Senior Bowl rolled around, he'd already shrunk by 1.125". In fairness, he could have gained some weight, which would have pulled him closer to the ground.
-A quick perusal of Southeastern Louisiana's site shows that Robert Alford was 6' . At the Senior Bowl, he had gone all the way down to 5'9 7/8"!!! He lost a TON of money! A 6' corner is way more desirable than a shrimp like he is now. He should sue someone for lost wages.
-Quinton Patton? 2 inch loss.
-Kenjon Barner also lost 2 inches!

These are just a few examples. There are literally THOUSANDS more. The NFL really needs to hire some scientists to study how to keep players at their peak height that they grew to in college. Their inaction is ridiculous!

Yeah, I'm a terrible troll.

Global warming.

Also: High school girls. What's the deal with them having bigger boobs now than 10 years ago?

Some programs are very accurate when it comes to player measurements, others seem to go by the eye test when deciding a player's official height.

LB Cornelius Bennett lost 2 inches in height by the time he was drafted,(he was 6'4 at Alabama, 6'2 for the Bills).

I think it's funny, anyway if you can play what's a couple inches??
(At least that's what she said.)

Adderall. ever wonder how Seattle corners got so tall?

Roger Goodell's fault

The crazy part is, these kids were even taller in HS!!!

Maybe all the collisions compact the spine, thus making these guys shorter over the years? Seems legit, huh?

I think that's more like Fluker's deal, where they add so much weight in college that gravity just pulls down on them harder. That's what makes it so weird that they get shorter and lighter when they go pro.

Its all the lifting.

Squats force all the weight down and compress the spine over time.

Apparently, kids run 4.2s regularly in the state of Florida.

Today's NFL: Smaller, Weaker, Slower.

I know! After leaving Florida, they all got about 0.10 seconds slower!

This further supports my hypothesis that college conditioning coaches are 100% superior to their pro counterparts.

no, no, no....that can't be right.

Where are you getting these numbers from? Sure you can find college numbers, but your official numbers are coming from the scouting combine. They have not been touched by pro strength coaches.

They are over training in a short period that is the only explanation. Now I do agree that the college strength coaches are better, since the NFL ones can't bring them back to their height, speed and weight.

What's funny about 40 times is they don't make them run in pads... You know it being football hat might help understand how fast they really are.

or start off in a 3 point stance.

Well other than a DE, who's 40 might matter.

Florida State must have the best coaches because their players are always bigger. Litterally every one of their players measures an inch smaller when they get into the NFL except for Lawrence Timmons, who somehow lost two inches in the transition from Tallahassee to Pittsburgh.

I know this is a bit of a gag thread, but i'm pretty sure that the honest answer is that they're measured without shoes at the combine. I'm guessing that most schools measure their players in shoes (the NBA does too, if I'm not mistaken) and that accounts for the one or two inch discrepancy. Also, coleges round up. 5'9" 7/8th's becomes 5'11" 2/8th in shoes, which then gets rounded up to 6'0".

"Mount Cody" was 6'7" coming out of Junior College, measured in under 6'4" at the combine

It's a lot colder in Pittsburgh than Florida

The Universal Law of Gravitation bros.

Many schools realize the fact that making All American teams really helps their recruiting, they inflate player's heights and weights to fool All American voters into thinking the player is bigger in all aspects because they believe it leads to getting more of their players on All American teams.
Pro teams realize this which is why they insist on measuring every prospect, they pay little attention to college listings unless they know from past experience that certain colleges don't lie.

With all of that weight, I bet his spine has compressed another 2 inches by now.

By the time he's 40, he'll be a midget.

QFT. It's sooooo annoying. I feel like such a creep whenever I'm checking out some girl that I know is like 10 years younger than me. I still do it though, but still...

Get your crazy conspiracy theories out of here. The players are clearly just shrinking once they stop banging that college strange.

Most clueless post ever?