2008 Woodie Awards
NFL draft presents the chance
Hayden Bird '09
Issue date: 4/30/08 Section: Sports
In terms of important sports days of the year, the NFL draft has to rank as one of the most bizarre. Rarely does a sport draw so much attention to itself on a day when no games are played. Yet every year, no matter how many top ten picks turn out to be busts, fans flock to Radio City Music Hall to experience the culmination of many months of interviews, meetings, scouting and empty hair-gel bottles that at one point belonged to Mel Kiper Jr.
To explain the NFL draft phenomenon, it's necessary to understand the usual audience: overly interested fans that have no less than three fantasy teams and usually are waking up to flip the draft on at three in the afternoon (myself included). Most of these guys could care less that no official football gets played for another four months; their primary concern is which linebacker the Pats will take.
Furthermore, it's not really important that your team takes a good player; it's whether or not they take the player that everyone wants them to. I guess that's a big reason why so many people love the draft. They feel like they're directly involved. That's why Jet fans show up in droves to boo their pick every year. It's because they know that they're going to be part of history. Don't believe me? Go to YouTube right now and look up "greatest Jets draft busts." People have actually made a highlight clip of the greatest Jets draft misses of all time, and the best part is the fans!
That's the real mystique with the draft.
The fans know that on one of the league's most important days every year, they become more important than anything else for majority of the time (unless you work for ESPN).
All of this is true because, no matter how many experts say one player will be good while another is awful, none of it gets proven one way or the other for three years. (This is because its takes that long for a player to effectively show if he will be good in the NFL or not.) But three years! That's 2011! In that same span of time, Alex Rodriguez will make 84 million dollars and Lebron James will probably purchase 84 automobiles.
To explain the NFL draft phenomenon, it's necessary to understand the usual audience: overly interested fans that have no less than three fantasy teams and usually are waking up to flip the draft on at three in the afternoon (myself included). Most of these guys could care less that no official football gets played for another four months; their primary concern is which linebacker the Pats will take.
Furthermore, it's not really important that your team takes a good player; it's whether or not they take the player that everyone wants them to. I guess that's a big reason why so many people love the draft. They feel like they're directly involved. That's why Jet fans show up in droves to boo their pick every year. It's because they know that they're going to be part of history. Don't believe me? Go to YouTube right now and look up "greatest Jets draft busts." People have actually made a highlight clip of the greatest Jets draft misses of all time, and the best part is the fans!
That's the real mystique with the draft.
The fans know that on one of the league's most important days every year, they become more important than anything else for majority of the time (unless you work for ESPN).
All of this is true because, no matter how many experts say one player will be good while another is awful, none of it gets proven one way or the other for three years. (This is because its takes that long for a player to effectively show if he will be good in the NFL or not.) But three years! That's 2011! In that same span of time, Alex Rodriguez will make 84 million dollars and Lebron James will probably purchase 84 automobiles.
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