Look at the tests that are used by employers today. You have tests for financial services, tests for becoming an electrical apprentice. But the one that I think it equates to best is firefighters. You have to process information at a moment’s notice and act on that. It may not be life and death like a firefighter, but you have to process and absorb a situation and act on it quickly, which is a lot different than becoming a financial analyst or a lawyer.
Cyrus Mehri—Lawyer and cofounder of PAT
The 2013 NFL Combine held for pre-draft hopefuls is officially underway at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The top 300 draft eligible athletes submit to tests for both physical strength and mental toughness over seven days, while the NFL teams observe, compare, and analyze results to aid in their selections for the upcoming draft.
A new addition this year’s trials is an aptitude test designed to score each athlete’s non-physical abilities, learning style, and strengths. Cofounded by attorney Cyrus Mehri, an attorney who leads the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which monitors the N.F.L.’s minority hiring practices, and designed by Harold Goldstein, a professor of industrial and organizational psychology at Baruch College in New York, this new test provides another picture into the overall football mental game of a player. Focusing on the psychology of football to compare possible draft choices is nothing new, but this alternate form of testing offers progressive insight into the learning styles and character of players possibly facing the stringent demands of the NFL coupled with the stresses associated with multi- million dollar contracts.
The NFL continues to administer the Wonderlic Personnel Test that has been used since the 1970’s and incorporates a fifty question test given in twelve minutes. While it does offer insight into the aptitude of a player, the new Personal Assessment Test (PAT) covers sixteen different areas that affect a player’s ultimate success or failure at the professional level.
The PAT is used in addition to the Wonderlic to evaluate the overall mental toughness of a player and the potential for achievement in the NFL. The new test measures a variety mental aptitudes including learning styles, motivation, decision-making skills, responding to pressure or unexpected stimuli, and core intellect.
While the Wonderlic has often been accused of racial bias or success based on prior knowledge, the PAT provides a broader look into actual strengths and football confidence a player may possess that doesn’t transfer to a traditional intelligence test.
Mehri explains, “This is like a point after touchdown, in that the players do all the other stuff and this is the last thing they do. I feel that it’s going to level the playing field a little bit for kids from different socio-economic backgrounds. I think there will be some anxiety, but I do hope it’s a little empowering. For a lot of kids, their strengths are being missed under the current system that is going to be discovered under this system.”
The mental toughness and football confidence in a player is crucial to teams willing to spend millions of dollars in a gamble for a rookie’s success on the football field. Under the PAT, the decisions made on the football field are compared to the first response attained by a fireman. This comparison is no stretch for Louisiana offensive tackle Jordan Mills, whose father is a professional firefighter.
“He says we basically have the same job. You have to go out there in a danger zone and make quick decisions. In a fire, he has to go out and save people by making quick decisions. Do I go out this door, or do I ask for help? It’s always a life decision that comes to you in that type of situation. We’re playing football and it’s not life or death, but there is danger and you have to decide quickly.” Hopefully the PAT will help deviate the mental toughness, decision making abilities, character and integrity for this year’s NFL draftees.
Another draft hopeful is Notre Dame’s linebacker, Manti Teo. Faced with tremendous media scrutiny after facing the aftermath of a hoax where he believed his girlfriend died, Teo is working to reestablish his mental game for football and alleviate any doubts potential teams may feel about his mental toughness.
Teo said, “After the season my team and I had, there were a lot of people in our corner. And then when Jan. 16 happened, there were a lot of people in the other corner. I just have to appreciate the people I have that are good to me. It just makes sure you always try to turn a negative thing into a positive.” Hopefully for Teo the new PAT will provide insight into a strong mental game for football and impeccable integrity which bodes well with the NFL scouts.
Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of athletes entering the 2013 draft is big business with hopes that the time spent parlays into success on the football fields. The new PAT promotes the significance of mental toughness in the process of drafting athletes.
Cyrus Mehri says it best when he describes his new personality aptitude test, “How do you capture that kind of playmaking in a test? You can’t figure that out the way the combine is now. How you handle pressure, your mental toughness. At least this can be a window into it.”
