Column: The unpredictable NFL Draft
Torrey Smith, CT Sports Reporter
April 26, 2007
Who will the Oakland Raiders select first overall? How far will Calvin Johnson - the most gifted athlete of the class - fall in the order?
These are the familiar questions surrounding the most sensationalized and beaten to death sports event of the year - the NFL Draft.
Talk about an over-hyped event. Over the past few weeks, it's gotten almost the same amount of pre-event coverage as the Super Bowl received on ESPN's family of networks. For weeks, the sports world has argued over who will be drafted first overall, who the best athlete in the draft is and which team will make a move to trade up or down in the draft.
The biggest question mark for me, as a Redskins fan, is what bone-headed move Daniel Snyder and company will make on draft day, but that's beside the point.
Every draft position in the first round has been dissected, and draft projections have run into the fifth round in some instances.
The sports nation has even brought in so-called "draft experts" to break down game tapes, critique NFL Draft Combine results, and put in hours on end to rank the draft hopefuls in the perfect order.
These experts invest so much time into scouting these players that they probably have most of the players' eating and sleeping habits down to a "T."
While some might consider them "hardcore" football fans and doing us all a favor, at a certain point, enough is enough.
And they've far exceeded that point.
It's not just the experts that are buying into the hype, either. Former Notre Dame quarterback, Brady Quinn, has tapped into the machine by making several appearances on radio talk shows, ESPN's "Cold Pizza," and any other form of the media in hopes of boosting his draft position (which at the moment could be in a downward spiral due to questions concerning his throwing accuracy · or so I hear).
It's hard to go 10 or 15 minutes on a sports channel without hearing some kind of NFL Draft coverage.
I understand that the NFL is without a doubt the powerhouse of major sports in America, but honestly, is this much coverage necessary for a draft?
There's absolutely no need to endlessly cover a draft when the NBA and NHL Playoffs are in progress and MLB is off and running in its first month of the season.
Though Mel Kiper, Jr. may consider it heresy, there are actually some intriguing sports stories unfolding outside the realm of the NFL Draft.
Alex Rodriguez has belted 14 home runs in just 19 games, the defending NBA champion Miami Heat look to be headed for an early playoff exit, and the New York Rangers won their first playoff series since 1997.
While these stories may sound different at first, all of them share one thing in common - they seem to be overshadowed by the looming NFL Draft.
There's no denying the importance of the event, as teams - except for my beloved Redskins - have figured out that in order to win a championship you must address pressing needs and build through the draft.
The commissioner or the deputy commissioner can spark hope, confusion or sheer anger (specifically from New York Jets fans) simply by saying a name.
But, the fact that it has taken over the airwaves like a cancer is a problem, and the reason why I find myself eager to wake up sometime next week is to be cured of this disease known as the NFL Draft.