The Most Boring Weekend Of The Year
It may surprise some readers to know that I find the NFL draft to be one of the most boring sporting spectacles known to man. I put up with it every year because, well, in the end, I am interested in who gets drafted and I like to see who my Patriots take and how they've wheeled and dealed yet again. And yes, I'll watch some of the draft when it's on, but that's only if I'm home with nothing else to do and I'm killing time ... it's either that or the movie of the weekend on TNT or TBS.
Maybe the draft's not that bad, but it is basically like watching a jazzed up version of CSPAN for jocks. In the grand scheme of things, it's probably as meaningful as everything you see on CPSAN. Every year we see the draft professionals excited about the top picks and every year a majority of those picks fail to pan out. The draft offers some excitment when your team is terrible because when you make that expert and fan approved pick, you can look forward to celebrating your biggest success of the season. But for the good teams ... eh. Sure, good teams are built through the draft, but that's a process, not a spectacle. Teams that build through the draft are successful when their mid-round draft picks (3rd, 4th and 5th rounders) excel, something that's usually not all that apparent for at least several years.
The real truth of the NFL draft is that it's a crap shoot. Even the teams that draft well make plenty of bad picks and sometimes you can't go wrong when Peyton Manning is on the board. As I said before, the draft interests me from a process standpoint- not in terms of the spectacle it's presented as. Interestingly enough, the NBA draft, a fairly popular event, receives far less hype than the NFL draft, despite the fact that it's much more meaningful and interesting. I mean think about, that lottery pick in the NBA actually means something- think of all the Tim Duncan's, LeBron James's, even Allen Iverson's of the world that shaped their franchises.
So the 2008 NFL draft starts tomorrow afternoon. Get out your stop watches.
Maybe the draft's not that bad, but it is basically like watching a jazzed up version of CSPAN for jocks. In the grand scheme of things, it's probably as meaningful as everything you see on CPSAN. Every year we see the draft professionals excited about the top picks and every year a majority of those picks fail to pan out. The draft offers some excitment when your team is terrible because when you make that expert and fan approved pick, you can look forward to celebrating your biggest success of the season. But for the good teams ... eh. Sure, good teams are built through the draft, but that's a process, not a spectacle. Teams that build through the draft are successful when their mid-round draft picks (3rd, 4th and 5th rounders) excel, something that's usually not all that apparent for at least several years.
The real truth of the NFL draft is that it's a crap shoot. Even the teams that draft well make plenty of bad picks and sometimes you can't go wrong when Peyton Manning is on the board. As I said before, the draft interests me from a process standpoint- not in terms of the spectacle it's presented as. Interestingly enough, the NBA draft, a fairly popular event, receives far less hype than the NFL draft, despite the fact that it's much more meaningful and interesting. I mean think about, that lottery pick in the NBA actually means something- think of all the Tim Duncan's, LeBron James's, even Allen Iverson's of the world that shaped their franchises.
So the 2008 NFL draft starts tomorrow afternoon. Get out your stop watches.
posted by lonely libertarian at 12:52 PM
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