Tom Curran • E-mail

INDIANAPOLIS - Around 11 Thursday morning, Steelers vice president of football operations Kevin Colbert told an assemblage of reporters, “About 80 percent of the evaluation (of draftable players) is done from August to September.”

Presuming that another percentage of the evaluation is done after this week’s Combine, that means less than 20 percent of the evaluation process is done here in Indy. So what’s the key draw in Indy every February? Here are a few main ones.

The physical. “That’s the be-all and end-all of the Combine,” said Colts president Bill Polian.

The 15-minute sitdown interview. Players and team officials are able to get a look at each other and “put a face to the name” as Colbert said. Colbert, one of the savviest personnel men in the league, said he likes to spend the interview time learning about a prospect’s family life and upbringing.

Agents and teams playing free-agent footsie. The surprisingly hoppin’ downtown of Indianapolis affords numerous bar, lounge, restaurant and lobby opportunities for agents and team decision-makers to break bread, wet whistles and talk about veteran players who will become free agents once the league year starts on February 29. Of course, a team that inquires about a player who’s the property of another team before free agency is tampering. But short of putting recording devices on lapels, it’s next to impossible to determine whether a player’s agent is unveiling an asking price to an interested GM or just asking about his family.

Staff indoctrinating. With the amount of turnover that goes on every year, there are always new people who need to be shown the nuances of the way each team does business. For many teams — the Redskins, for example — this is the first go-round for a head coach at being the man in charge or finding out who the man in charge might be as is more the case with Washington.

Finding out what you don’t know. Some teams have to pick up the merchandise five times and pass it around the room to know if they want it or not. Others can sometimes make their decision on whether they like a player based solely on game tapes, talking to a player’s college coaches and measurables. For those teams, a red flag raised in Indy may compel them to have a player in for a visit for further checking. That could be concerns about whether a player can retain certain schemes, deeper concerns about injuries or an opportunity to go more in depth while watching film.

Linehan ripped
A former member of the St. Louis Rams coaching staff ripped Rams head coach Scott Linehan on Thursday night for the insensitivity he’s shown in relieving seven assistant coaches of their jobs this offseason.

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The move that drew the most scorn from the former assistant who requested anonymity was the firing this week of tight ends coach Judd Garrett. The 40-year-old Garrett is a father of four kids between the ages of 9 and 15. Garrett’s wife Kathy died on August 19 at the age of 38.

Scoffing at Linehan’s contention he was relieving Garrett of his duties so Garrett could spend time with his family, the former assistant said, “He fired him. He didn’t do it for his family. What a crock.”

He went on to say that Linehan waited until other assistants left the building then called them while they were on their way home so he didn’t have to fire them in person.

“He’s in over his head,” the former assistant stated. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Icing kicker still OK!
The spate of teams using timeouts in the final seconds to upset the timing of key field goal attempts early last year won’t lead to a rules change said Titans head coach Jeff Fisher.

A member of the league’s competition committee, Fisher said, “My personal opinion is that all you needed to have happen was once or twice a coach called a timeout, a field goal was missed and then the kicker made the next one and then you wouldn’t see it happen anymore. That happened and after that it just kind of died out. It was just an early season trend and I think we won’t see much more of it.”

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Members of the committee said there were no plans to discuss either a camera stationed on the goal line to determine whether players break the plane or the use of replay on pass interference calls.

This is what could be called the discovery process for rules changes. At next month’s NFL Owner’s Meetings in Palm Beach, votes will be taken to formalize any changes.

Polian on Manning Combine
The move a decade ago that took the Indianapolis Colts from Moribund Road to Elite Street was the drafting in 1998 of Peyton Manning. It was the first – and probably most important – move made by Colts president Bill Polian.

“He looked tremendous and he dispelled a lot of myths that were out there. The myth was that he didn’t have a strong arm. That he threw a light ball. That he wasn’t very accurate. All of those myths were dispelled in his workout. He burned the hands off his receivers. He threw the ball accurately at 65 yards and we were astounded at what a heavy ball he threw.”

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