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WHY DO WE LOVE THE DRAFT?
As the draft approaches this weekend people ask me one question more than any other:
“Why are you going to spend almost this entire spring weekend watching an incredibly slow selection process, with no real immediacy, when you can find out the information the next day?”
My only answer is: “I really don’t know.”
But I am not alone. Over the past decade the draft has become more and more popular, with the NFL moving the starting time up to 4 p.m., and reducing first round selection times to ten minutes from fifteen, in hopes of drawing better ratings.
Yes, this glacial process grabs ratings – and good ratings at that.
People all around the country will be joining me on this annual sojourn. Is it to say they were watching when the next super star enters the NFL. I was there when the Patriots grabbed Tom Brady at the 199th slot. I was there when Peyton Manning came off the board first and Ryan Leaf followed, were you?
But is that the only reason?
Or do we all miss football so badly during the offseason that we will gladly watch anything involving it? ESPN2 ran a prime time special when the schedules were announced. We even already knew who was playing whom, yet we just watched to find out the dates of the games.
We are a football obsessed nation, make no mistake about it.
But to sit through the draft – a process which can take up to 20 hours to complete, is a test to your true NFL fandom. We all live and die by this major holding company and its 32 branches. People argue and scream during the season, fight, not talk, develop life-long grudges, because of it. The games, at their height, are the greatest of drama. And those of us who complete the draft can claim fan superiority. (Where were you when Brady was picked)?
And (maybe) that is why we watch. And we buy magazines, and keep notes – and even watch the combine. That’s right, watching a bunch of twenty something men running sprints and jumping up and down in shorts and t-shirts draws viewers; Who can brag we saw Adrian Peterson blaze through his 40 yard dash?
I guess the bottom line is this: I have really have no good reason why I will spend a beautiful spring weekend sitting on my couch watching people I don’t know and will never meet become millionaires, other than I want to be THAT type of fan. And no, I don’t know why I will take notes, and look up players, and remember this weekend fondly for years to come.
I don’t know.
Let’s face facts – the NFL is a big disease and we suffer from one of its worse side effects.
Draft-nic-itis, for which there is no cure.
And I for one am glad.