Cognitive ability tests and NFL

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Cognitive ability tests and NFL

• Wonderlic Personnel Test, measure of cognitive
  ability, is given to incoming NFL players
• Measures how well people comprehend problems and
  how quickly they can solve them (requires
  test-takers to spend less than 15 seconds on
  each, on average)
• Across population average score 21
• St. Louis Rams offense averages 27 (comparable to
  chemists and engineers)
• Four smartest teams St. Louis, Tampa Bay,
  Oakland, Tennessee
• Tampa Bays guards average 34, higher than
  typical attorney
• First five players drafted by Detroit Lions in
  2005 draft had average of 28
• Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks had average of 39
• Green Bay Packers average is 19.1 (comparable to
  hospital orderlies)
• Among colleges, Purdue placed second (behind
  Stanford) in terms of average Wonderlic of
  players going to NFL (of schools w/ more than 20
  alums over past seven years)
• Five Pac 10 schools in top ten, six Big Ten
  schools in top twenty
• Michigan State and Miami finished at bottom, with
  scores comparable to average nurses aide
• Source Wall Street Journal, 9/30/05