With millions of dollars at stake during this weekend’s NFL draft,

professional football teams seek to measure the intelligence of each

prospective player in addition to his physical ability. Thus the

importance of the <A

HREF=”http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/magazine/life_of_reilly/news/2001/04/17/life_of_reilly/”>Wonderlic

psychological test. (You can try it for yourself <A

HREF=”http://espn.go.com/page2/s/closer/020228test.html”>here.)

Charlie Wonderlic, Jr., president of Wonderlic Inc., told <A

HREF=”http://espn.go.com/page2/s/closer/020228.html”>ESPN that “A score

of 10 [out of 50] is literacy, that’s about all we can say.” The typical

Wonderlic score is 21. The NFL average is 19.

One of the “star defensive lineman” in this draft, noted today’s <A HREF=”http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/26/sports/football/26RUMO.html”>New York Times, scored a 7. A equally nameless NFL official told the

Times that “this player comes from a household where little English

was spoken, which could account for his low tally.”

The anonymous football star in question spent 12 years in school, followed

by at least some college where tutors are plentiful. Yet his low test

score is somehow his parent’s fault, or society’s fault or anyone else’s

fault but his own.