Like most other sports fans around the country, I was FLOORED by the news that ASU quarterback Brock Osweiler measured out at a "measly" six-foot-six and seven eighths (6-6 7/8) at the NFL Combine. Everyone who went near an ASU football game heard countless times that Brock was 6-8 (and was a former basketball player who turned down a scholarship to Gonzaga to be a QB at ASU).
It even became a drinking game that reportedly sent scores and scores of Sun Devil fans to the hospital after repeatedly consuming too much alcohol during games as they drank each time "6-8" was mentioned next to Brock's name. (That didn't really happen but it totally could have.)
So, where did things go wrong? Was the football program pulling a fast one?
We investigated and in an SB Nation Arizona exclusive broke open the biggest scandal to hit college football since the last scandal to hit college football.
"He shrunk," an ASU official said when asked about the discrepancy.
Perhaps 21-year-old Brock Osweiler did manage to shrink over the last few weeks or just maybe this alternate explanation is more believable.
"6-6 7/8 is 6-8 in cleats. And last time I check, you play in shoes," the source with knowledge of the situation said.
This does have the ring of truth, especially when you consider the history ASU has with the "official measurement" issue.
azcentral.com blogs - Paola Boivin - Random musings on ASU, Suns, more
Nothing amuses me more than the popular trend by basketball teams of misstating a player's true height. During the USA Basketball team trials leading up the 1992 Olympics, we learned that Charles Barkley was really 6 feet 4 1/2 and not 6-6 and that Magic Johnson checked in at 6-7 and not 6-9.
[...]Arizona State's James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph were true to their measurements, and that's very much a Herb Sendek thing. When the coach arrived in Tempe, he insisted measurements come straight from the strength-and-conditioning coach.
When one player came in at 6-2 1/4 and groaned about not being listed at 6-3, a team liaison came to Sendek, unsure how to handle it. "What do I tell him?" he said. "Grow," Sendek deadpanned.
It's too bad for all of us that Herb Sendek is the basketball coach and not the football coach or this whole nasty Inch Gate affair could have been avoided. We just hope that Brock can recover from the shame and go on to a great NFL career.
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