Legend has it that Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry was one of the first National Football League coaches to employ the Wonderlic Personnel Test to assess players' cognitive ability. By 1970 several teams were using the 12-minute, 50-question test to evaluate potential draft picks.

E.F. "Al" Wonderlic (EB32, G34) created the short-form assessment of cognitive ability as a psychology graduate student at Northwestern. He and his wife began distributing the test from their apartment in Chicago in 1937. By 1961 more than 5 million people had taken his test.

Today, Charlie Wonderlic Jr., the founder's grandson, runs the firm in Libertyville, Ill. As part of its expanded human resources products and services, Wonderlic Inc. prints the revised WPT in 14 languages for more than 7,000 businesses worldwide — including the NFL.

Every year several hundred potential draftees take the standardized test as part of teams' player evaluation. The test, which includes multiple choice and open response questions on math, memorizing comprehension and spatial reasoning, provides an idea of a player's general intelligence and helps teams assess learning and problem-solving ability.

— Robbie Levin (J12)

Ever wonder how you'd score on the Wonderlic? Here's your chance to find out.

By the standards he so highly endorses, Darren Rovell is worse than average at his job. Rovell took fire last week for sharing prospects’ low Wonderlic scores, along with a graphic of the averages by profession, and then decided to take Wonderlic up on an offer to fly him in and have him take the test. Rovell finished with a 26, which by the handy graphic he shared last week, is below the average of 28 for a reporter.

Leonard Fournette & Dalvin Cook got 11's on their Wonderlic, per @BobMcGinn. Here's an occupational comparison chart pic.twitter.com/38jf3AX7RE

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 20, 2017

Rovell Periscoped the whole process of him taking the test, and it had some great highlights, including him complaining about kids outside, him being trolled by commenters, and him putting his Emmy (yes, he won one in 2008 for contributions to NBC’s election coverage) on the desk. So you don’t have to suffer through the whole broadcast the way our Liam McGuire did, here’s a condensed version:

So, by those results, Rovell did worse than your average reporter, but marginally better than your average salesman. Hmm. Of course, it would be ludicrous to suggest that reporting proficiency can be determined by a baseline test like this, much of which doesn’t involve anything to do with reporting. Almost as ludicrous as suggesting that the ability to do mental math and other skills the Wonderlic checks has an impact on your ability to play professional football. But it must, because the big businesses of the NFL use it, and big businesses never make mistakes in Rovell’s world.

@TaylorRooks test gets publicly bashed as useless, begs the question as to why teams still use it. Gotta be a reason more than tradition.

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 20, 2017

@AndrewBucholtz Teams still deliver it, teams still look at it, teams still keep track of it. They still make it part of the equation, I don't.

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 20, 2017

@AndrewBucholtz who said I didn't think it matters? I'm unclear of relevance to teams. But they still deliver it and still track it and make it part of formula

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 20, 2017

We have to wonder what value there was for Rovell and ESPN in doing this. Twitter engagement for Rovell, perhaps? And an excuse for him and other ESPN commentators to keep citing the Wonderlic? But it doesn’t necessarily make him look good, especially given his not-great score, and the whole thing felt more like an ad for Wonderlic than any useful journalism. And we still have no answer to if Rovell would actually report “purple monkey dishwasher” if an NFL team told him that. That might be a better test of reporting ability than the Wonderlic.

I completely understand why someone in a specialized field like Chemistry or Engineering would have to take the Wonderlic Test, but I still have never really understood its application to the game of Football. Today, various media members are riffling through this year’s set of scores, and scrutinizing those players who are on the bottom end. And while the scores ultimately don’t really even matter, there is a slight problem for the NFL. Where did the leak come from?

PFT has the information, and it appears likely that a high-level official at an NFL team, is more than likely the culprit….

After Vince Young’s single-digit debacle made its way to this here joint three years ago, the league placed heavy restrictions on the dissemination of the information.

Per a league source, the NFL delivers the Wonderlic scores via hand-carried pouch to one person per team, usually the G.M., the team president, or the director of player personnel.

“The scores are kept separate and from all the other Combine data, which is sent to teams electronically via the Internet,” the source said. “There are no electronic files and only one hard copy per team.”

So, basically, Pompei’s source likely is someone who operates at a very high level with one of the teams — and who is willing to disregard the league’s clear directive to keep the information secret. (Alternatively, someone who operates at a very high level with one of the teams has not safeguarded the information, allowing someone at a lower level to get their mitts on the numbers. Or, possibly, the leaker is employed by the league office or the Combine.)

Again, I find it hard to believe a team wouldn’t draft say Darius Heyward-Bey (who ran a 4.24 40-yard dash at the Combine), because he couldn’t figure out a problem on fractions. But, I could be wrong. Here are some of the notable, leaked scores in case you want to compare your result from the test….

Matthew Stafford- 38
Mark Sanchez- 28
Josh Freeman- 27
Michael Crabtree- 15
Darrius Heyward-Bey- 14
Percy Harvin- 12
Hakeem Nicks- 11
Jeremy Maclin- 25
Andre Smith- 17
Eben Britton- 31
Eugene Monroe- 24
Jason Smith- 23
Michael Oher- 19
Clay Matthews- 21
Brian Cushing- 23
Rey Maualuga- 15
Kevin Barnes- 41
Louis Delmas- 12

Wonderlic Leak Could Come From Only A Narrow Group Of Sources (Pro Football Talk)
Georgia’s Matthew Stafford stands out with NFL Wonderlic score (Chicago Tribune)

Each year, NFL scouts and executives use a number of metrics and measurements to evaluate prospects ahead of the NFL Draft. When it comes to aptitude or cognitive ability, they often rely on players' scores from the Wonderlic Personnel Test, a 12-minute assessment consisting of 50 multiple-choice questions.

Participants' scores are representative of the number of questions answered correctly; a score of 25 would mean 25 questions were answered correctly.

While some executives feel there is a correlation between Wonderlic scores and NFL success, others argue that test scores are not the best indicator.

With prospects Studying for the 2019 NFL Draft, here are some of the more notable Wonderlic scores over the years.

Background

Industry experts have found that an aging population, emerging treatment methods and technology advances mean strong career prospects for well-qualified sales reps.

Potential Earnings

PayScale.com sets the average compensation package for entry-level representatives at $51,297 but also notes a significant upside for bonus compensation and long term growth.According to MedReps, total compensation for an experienced pharmaceutical sales reps can be up to $149,544 per year, with an average base of $92,698 and bonus.