It's part wrestling, part brawling, and more revealing than much of the minutiae in the NFL's data banks. One of the reasons the Bengals drafted Anthony Munoz in 1980 was that head coach Forrest Gregg personally tested his pass protection skills and wound up knocked on his wallet. If you want to separate the authentic football players from the fraudulent workout warriors, it's important to test their toughness. There has never been a better toughness barometer than Tim Krumrie. Some guys set up a cone drill.
Some guys do a shuttle run.
Some guys do a bench test. . Krumrie is 40 years old, seven years and 40 pounds removed from his last game as a Bengal noseguard. Yet he retains the strength and savvy that made him a state champion wrestler in Wisconsin, and purports to be undefeated in his dealings withdraft prospects. On some of his campus visits, Krumrie will grapple with three or four college players in a day in search of the guy who doesn't give up easily. He'll show up for the workout sessions in jeans and cowboy boots, wearing a shirt he's willing to have ripped and the expression of cold-blooded confidence that characterized his playing career.