The Glorious Nonsense of the NFL Draft
Most fans tune into the NFL Draft to see who their favourite team has chosen to help bolster the squad for the upcoming season. While that may be the most important part of the event, there are other more entertaining reasons to watch.
The Draft Hats
As is the tradition with most professional drafts, when a player is selected they come up to the podium and put on their new team’s hat. The NFL of course designs a new hat each year so fans can add something to their collection of memorabilia. The challenge for the league, and especially the person responsible for coming up with the designs, is making them unique every year.
Hence the reason the hats become more terrible with each passing year. Over the past thirty years they must have come up with every possible idea for a hat. There is simply nothing left that looks anything close to decent. Seriously though how many different variations can you come up with when you have the Cleveland Browns logo to work with?
Booing
One of the best parts of the draft is the obligatory booing of many picks in the first round. With the draft being held annually at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, fans from all over the league come to voice their pleasure or displeasure with the picks. Which has always been puzzling to me because it seems to make little sense to boo a guy before he has even stepped on the field.
One of the most famous incidents of booing was when Donovan McNabb was taken by the Eagles second overall in the 1999 Draft. McNabb was booed mercilessly by Eagles fans, which in hindsight isn’t all that surprising since Philly fans would probably even boo Santa Claus.
Actually now that I think about it……..
Going Off the Board
Inevitably in the first round a team will always take someone who no one predicted would go that high. If you listen closely you can hear the panic and rustling of papers by Mel Kiper Jr. as he tries to figure out what the heck just happened.
By this time most fans realize that any mock drafts they looked at leading up to the event are completely in shambles.
The War Room
How can you not love the standard shots of a team’s draft headquarters as their pick is being made?
There is never any audio and no way to prove if anything is actually happening. You can never really be sure if there is some intense discussion going on, or if the Dallas Cowboys staff is asking if everyone is ok with ordering Chinese food for dinner.
