With the National Football League playoffs in full swing it is only appropriate to examine how each player is assessed mentally.  Football players are filtered through many physical assessments to ensure proper fitness levels to endure the demands of being a professional.  Physical assessments are very much so cut and dry and can make the comparison to others very easy.  This is not the case in psychological assessments.  There are many assessments that can be used to examine intelligence levels, anxiety control, etc., but which is the best for football and how can each be compared?

In our ethics class, we were given the Wonderlic inappropriately to show us the unethical way to give an assessment.  Having seen some of the questions on the Wonderlic, it makes me question if this is the right test to be giving to potential professional football players.

As the game of football requires an increased knowledge base, while being able to effectively think on your feet, follow directions, etc., it is clear that each player needs to have a certain intelligence level to be able to qualify.  But what would be the best way to examine their intelligence level? This would take an understanding of what the overall goal of the NFL is looking for in each player and possibly the creation of a psychological skills test just for the NFL that could be compared between players.  Again this would take many professionals and many research trials to ensure reliability and validity.  This obviously is not a cut and dry, here is the assessment and this is what we will use, but is the Wonderlic the correct assessment?

GO BRONCOS!