by Mike Tanier

REPORTER: "Tim Tebow: your thoughts?"

JOHN ELWAY: "What took you so long?"

So began Day Two of Podiumpalooza at the Combine, a music and culture festival without the music and culture. The press seating around Elway at Podium A was unusually crowded for 10:30 a.m., but any time can be Tebow Time.

Unfortunately, or mercifully, Tebow Fatigue has set in. Elway said nothing of substance, and the handful of questioned lobbed at him to try to lead him into one or another minefield had no effect. Elway, wearing a plum-colored sweater, said all the right things about his quarterback. When he admitted that the Broncos had to get better at throwing downfield from the pocket, he used the royal "we." Somewhere on the Internet, someone has certainly processed all of this into breathless news, but it was clear that everyone here was going through the mania motions. Someone get Brady Quinn riled up, stat!

Ted Thompson can be a great source of wisdom if you ask him the right questions. Asking him to evaluate his team needs or talk about unsigned free agents is not asking the right questions. "I'm not going to stand here and tell the other 31 teams what I think of Matt Flynn," the Packers GM said. Thompson only seemed tight-lipped because he received more than the usual allotment of "betray secrets about your long-range strategies," questions. A reporter in the back asked "what are your needs?" late in the press conference -- sounds like someone has been covering high school track for a few months.

Eventually, someone asked Thompson about the lack of information he offered. He said that he could be like "Opposite George from Seinfeld," but he will not give away secrets, and he will not lie. "I tell my scouts to listen and not talk," he said. No word yet on whether the Redskins are pursuing Opposite Ted for a front office position.

With his windswept hair, grey blazer, and white dress shirt rakishly unbuttoned to the second level, Jeff Fisher looked more like a soap opera villain than a head coach. Fisher said that the Rams have no plans to trade Sam Bradford, which of course could be a smokescreen (opposite Jeff), or it could be because Bradford is an excellent young passer and the second pick in April's draft is far more valuable as a trade commodity than as a chance to restart the development cycle at quarterback. Fisher did talk about the Rams' upcoming game in London. "If you are going to play the Patriots, it's best not to play them in North America," he said.

Thomas "The Dandy Highwayman" Dimitroff took the podium in a beige checkered blazer, navy sweater with black collar, and hair somewhere between Building the Perfect Beast-era Don Henley and a molting cockatiel. Sorry if you hate these fashion updates, but I can only hear the phrase "ongoing process" so many times before going slightly mad. Dimitroff spoke about his willingness to trade draft choices, calling them "trade fodder." "In this day and age you can't sit on your hands," he said, later speaking of "the precariousness of how the draft is going to land." The Falcons do not select until pick 55 this year, so the precariousness-to-fodder ratio after last year's Julio Jones trade is rather high. Dimitroff said that he will never regret the Jones trade, and he called Matt Ryan a top-10 quarterback. "I like where Matt is," he said.

Man Crush Alert

Let's start the player section with Robert Griffin III. As far as public presence goes, the young man is amazing. Poised, polished, bright ... I have tape of his conference, but I don't feel worthy to transcribe it. In addition to being honest and quick-witted, Griffin demonstrated a knowledge of the NFL that is rare among prospects. When asked about West Coast offenses, he immediately talked about the Browns and Redskins systems and their "verbiage." When pressed about adjusting from a shotgun offense to working under center, he pointed out how often Tom Brady and Eli Manning were in shotgun in the Super Bowl. He compared his game not only to Randall Cunningham and Steve Young, but Ken Stabler. He cracked jokes about how professors made fun of him and other football players when he was a freshman at Baylor, then "all they wanted to talk about was the game" as he (and the program) improved. He actually expressed an opinion about Peyton Manning, saying that he hopes to see the quarterback stay in Indianapolis. And if the Colts kept Manning and drafted him over Andrew Luck, he would learn from Manning and "hold that clipboard with pride."

I can only imagine what is going on in interview