Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett and his small hands provided internet fodder. Georgia’s 341-pound defensive tackle Jordan Davis ran a 4.78-second 40-yard dash and immediately went viral. NC State offensive lineman Ikem Ekwonu blew away draft pundits with his on-field workout to improve his stock.
Meanwhile, Kevin Farmer, M.D., raced around behind the scenes inside Lucas Oil Stadium, presenting medical reports to NFL team doctors on various players at the combine. Farmer is an orthopedic surgeon at UF Health and a team doctor for the Gators football team.
Farmer has been a regular at the NFL Combine since 2014 as a representative of the Miami Dolphins. The combine is part athletic showcase, part medical convention as teams seek to learn as much as possible about a potential draft pick’s medical history before selecting him in the draft.
No stone – err, medical chart – is unturned.
“The medical stuff here is so fine-tuned,” Farmer said. “They have the MRI units. They have hospital clothes, medical equipment of every kind. Everything is right here. You see an athlete, and you get their history, and I basically take them around to all the different rooms. Each room has five teams, and I present everything to the team surgeons so they have an idea what’s going on, and they don’t have to do all that themselves.”
Medical staff from all 32 teams converge on Indianapolis for the portion of the combine not shown live on the NFL Network. With more than 300 prospects in attendance, they spend as much, if not more, of their time with doctors as they do on the field performing drills.
Players receive a primary care evaluation and an orthopedic evaluation. They get X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans. They have their blood pressure checked, their heart rates monitored, and, yes, their hands measured.
And when the players meet with teams, it’s not a one-on-one meeting. They meet with a panel of doctors asking about everything and anything in their medical history.
“You walk into a room full of doctors, and you just sit down, and they’re all talking about you,” Nevada quarterback Carson Strong told The Athletic last week. “And you’re just sitting there. You hear the whispers, someone saying this, someone saying that. I just sat there like, ‘OK, this is kind of interesting.’ “
Farmer said to his knowledge, he and a physician from Notre Dame were the only two medical representatives from a college football team at the combine. He takes players to exams, reviews their scans, and gathers as much information as possible on the player before presenting the information to teams.
“Each team has to evaluate the athletes and then give them a medical grade,” Farmer said. “They use that when draft time comes, whether or not that potentially affects where they draft you.”
Farmer takes the week off from his regular job to attend the combine and often bumps into Gators in Indianapolis. Florida had four players at this year’s event: running back Dameon Pierce, defensive lineman Zachary Carter, cornerback Kaiir Elam and linebacker Jeremiah Moon.
He talks to the players about what they will encounter at the combine long before landing in Indiana.
“The main thing for me, why I do it, is it allows me when I evaluate and talk to our players at UF, I can tell them what the NFL teams are looking for, the things they are concerned about, are they addressing all the injuries,” Farmer said. “I think that’s the reason it’s good for our student-athletes to have somebody involved at this level who knows what’s going on.”
In his role with the Gators, Farmer works closely with Paul Silvestri, director of sports health for football, and other physicians associated with the team throughout the year in treating injuries and devising rehabilitation plans. A former baseball player at Duke who grew up in Daytona Beach, Farmer earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and did a shoulder and elbow reconstruction fellowship at UF in 2010.
He was hired as a team physician by the University Athletic Association shortly after his fellowship ended. Farmer is also a recent author, publishing “Football Injuries: A Clinical Guide to In-Season Management.”
The NFL Physicians Society, founded in 1966, oversees the medical operation at the combine.
On its official website, NFLPS.org, the organization answers a question concerning the role of team physicians at the combine:
Essentially the role of the team physicians is to obtain a comprehensive medical and orthopedic assessment of every player that is going to be part of the NFL Draft. Physicians typically perform this assessment by dividing up into several groups of orthopedic teams and medical teams. This allows us to share information and helps us avoid the tremendous redundancy that is inevitable in the process.
Farmer appreciates his part in helping out.
Both the team doctors and the players.
“I think it’s good for our players to have us here,” he said. “I can go to bat for them if teams have questions about any of our athletes. How’s this kid? Any concerns? I think it’s good for our kids to have somebody here on the inside who can talk to teams and give positive input.”
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