sardonicstyle

For every student who believes that their best writing was done on a timed essay, NFL general managers now understand how you feel.  The 2008 NFL draft at New York’s Radio City Music Hall did not suffer from decreased time “on the clock” for teams to make their picks.  Even though some fans in attendance still fell asleep during later rounds, I found the sacrifice of my weekend to watch the draft enjoyable from beginning to end.  With the time allotted per pick in the first round reduced from fifteen to ten minutes and from ten to seven in the second round day one of the draft was completed in record time.  No time wasted as the first two rounds combined finished over an hour more quickly than round one alone in 2007. 

Concern arose with the new time constraints as teams typically use their entire allotted time entertaining phone calls from other teams with trade proposals.  Many thought the change in format would mean fewer trades and while the event might be more concise would lack a certain dynamic.  A record setting fifty, draft day trades over the two days put an end to this suspicion.  Managers actually commented that the time limitations sparked more trade discussion among teams in the days leading up to the draft.  While this may be true of the first round, certainly in rounds three through seven teams might struggle with changing their draft position as rounds take five minutes.  Yet twelve trades occurred in the fourth round, the most of any round of the 2008 draft. 

The athlete’s elation contagious as audiences witness young people no older than twenty-four having their lives changed forever.  The drama of watching players fall carries more drama than an episode of Desperate Housewives.  Nervously fans await their teams pick hoping a player will fall to them, holding their breath every time a trade occurs as a team with similar needs may sneak up and make a steal.  Sometimes waiting hours for your team to grab a player fans deem of high caliber these same fans are often surprised by the selection of a player of relative anonymity.  Players vanish from the scouting boards in mismatched patterns where some teams feel their diamond in the rough was snatched and other teams are left scratching their heads over the same pick.  For the first time in the draft’s history no wide receivers were taken in the first round, but grabbed in a flurry with ten of them taken in round two.  Why?  Fortunately an all-star cast of draft specialists and former NFL athletes is there to navigate us through the commotion.  This commentary is what maintained my interest through all seven rounds. 

It is my prediction that the draft may one day be larger than the Super Bowl.  I found the amount of pre-game shows in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl to be tedious.  How fascinating can you make the match up of only two teams to the television audience?  The draft involves every team in the league and carries the fate of well over two hundred athletes.  Whatever there is to know about teams in the Super Bowl a real football fan has accumulated over the course of the season.  A casual fan doesn’t care enough to watch the intricacies broken down.  Most fans just want to say over and over again how great Randy Moss is.  Like no one has ever thought to pay the guy a compliment.  The draft provides more information than one individual can digest in a weekend, but avid fans try anyway.  It is the world’s greatest non-sporting sporting event.

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