INDIANAPOLIS - Every year, NFL prospects who grew up in Indiana make their way back to the Hoosier State to work out at the NFL Scouting Combine. 2018 Mr. Football Jack Kiser of Pioneer High School, via Notre Dame, and Maxen Hook of New Palestine, via Toledo, are a few examples from this year's event.
Then there's David Blackburn of Ben Davis High School, via DePauw, who also returns to town for the combine going on 18 years now. However, Blackburn makes the trip from the scouting side of the NFL, working as the Director of Player Personnel for the Washington Commanders.
"I just know that there's 18 baked-in trips back home where I can see my parents, see my sister, see other friends and family," Blackburn explains. "I love Indianapolis. It's a great place to raise a family and grow up in. It's a big city, but it's small, especially if you grow up playing sports."
That's how Blackburn grew up, helping Ben Davis football to a state championship in 1999 before moving on to play in college at DePauw, where he's a member of the Tigers' athletics Hall of Fame. It was during that playing career that Blackburn decided on a future scouting career.
"(It) didn't happen immediately," Blackburn remembers, "but I got into coaching over at Butler University down the way, and just through networking ended up getting an opportunity with the Baltimore Ravens in 2007."
Blackburn spent 17 years in Baltimore before leaving before the 2024 NFL season to become Director of Player Personnel for the Washington Commanders.
"My job entails just overseeing both the pro and college arms of our scouting department," Blackburn explains. "Just making sure we're checking our boxes and evaluating who's gonna be good fits for our team."
Blackburn must have done one or two things right in his evaluations, playing a role in turning the Commanders around from a four win team in 2023 to a 12 win team last year.
"It's been a great ride," Blackburn adds. "Really enjoyed it. You get to watch football for a living, so it sounds like a dream job, and a lotta times it is, but it does come with a lot of work and a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes that people don't really know.
"But it's a small fraternity of people that have the privilege to work in the NFL, and I'm blessed to be one of them."
A blessing Blackburn always has in mind, in particular when he's back home again in Indiana.