Ten players from the Kansas City area have received invitations to the NFL Combine, a sign of the region's growing presence in professional football. For years, the area was overlooked by college football recruiters due to its multi-sport culture. Ryan Wallace, a local high school football recruiting analyst with KC Sports Network, said that the region’s diverse backgrounds may have contributed to underrecruited recruitment. The shift in the area's football profile has been noticeable, with Wallace seeing the results of this change at the combine in Indianapolis.