The NFL draft is coming soon. This event has become insanely popular–to the point where calling it an event isn’t an exaggeration. Many people, even sports reporters and broadcasters, do not understand its popularity. It’s been noted that sometimes it seems like the draft has surpassed the actual NFL season in terms of popularity. Well, I’m going to tell you why it is so popular–based on my experiences and observations. (No, I’ve done no research on this. Why do you ask?)
First a brief explanation of what the draft is. The NFL teams’ officials scout college players and rate them. During the draft event, the teams take turns choosing players. The worst team gets first pick and the best team gets the last pick. They do that for 7 rounds. It’s like choosing sides in a sandlot game except that the nucleus of the team is already there (they’re called “veterans”) and there’s no shame in being the last player chosen. This takes place over 2 days. So, the fan sits there watching the televised reading of names for hours on end. That’s why some people don’t understand why others do it. And that’s why I’m writing this; so maybe you’ll come to some understanding. Although, at no time will I suggest you try it.
The following reasons are in no order. Some of the reasons I subscribe to and some of them I’ve only observed. Each person enjoying the draft may enjoy it because of one reason, several reasons, or, though unlikely, all the reasons I state. As the saying goes, results may vary.
Reason 1: Christmas in April.
The draft is a lot like football’s version of Christmas. There’s a lot of eating and drinking involved. A bunch of heavy-set older gentlemen grant gifts to the masses by giving the local teams some exciting new talent. While individuals may have some idea what they are (that is, their team is) going to get, they won’t know until that day. The fans lie awake the night before with visions of superstars dancing in their heads. And, just like Christmas, the gifts that you’re most excited about at first can often end up forgotten in a few years. And the gifts you’re least excited about at first can end up being the most cherished of all. Finally, every team believes they found their savior.
And for those of you who don’t really get the whole NFL-Draft-as-fun idea, you now may have a better idea of what it is like to be non-Christian at Christmas.
However, unlike Christmas, Hallmark hasn’t taken over. Take that!
You may ask, why doesn’t free agency have the same fanaticism as the player draft?
Free agency isn’t an event, it’s more like a process. Free agents can be signed any time during several months and it would be difficult to keep up intensity for that long. Second, unlike the draft, you pretty much know what you’re getting, in terms or player quality, and what you’re getting is near the player’s ceiling for potential. Most often, when a team signs a free agent, you get what you’re expecting or worse. Only rarely does a free agent come in and play extraordinarily better than he had on the previous team. In the draft, you just don’t know what you’re getting. Some of the players you think won’t amount to much end up superstars. Some of the players you think are guaranteed superstars end up not amounting to much.
Reason 2: Withdrawal
When I was a youth, we had no world wide web. We didn’t have cable television in our home. We had about 4 channels. We had a newspaper delivered to our house and Dad would usually bring home another one. From the Super Bowl, at that time in January, to the training camps in July there was almost nothing in the paper about the NFL. I’d open the paper in the faint hope that they’d be something–anything!–about football. Or even football related. “Bud Grant Speaks at TIPS Fundraiser.” It’d be two paragraphs long, but I would read it for 20 minutes. On TV, not much happening, either. One day during the off season, they’d have a superstars competition. Otherwise, I’d have to resort to the occasionally Green Bay Packer documentary or the Pro Bowl. Except for the NFL Draft. For the week leading up to it, the paper would have previews. After the draft, the paper would have results. Team by team listings. Round by round listings. Profiles of the Vikings picks. Articles telling us things like how Buster Rhymes thought Minnesota was in Ohio and he was glad he was chosen by Minnesota because he’s always wanted to visit Ohio. Sure they were just names of people I’d never heard of, but it was football!
Even in today’s massive multi-media world, the draft still holds a bit of a special place. Sure, there are lots of people talking about football, but most of the time it isn’t anything significant. It replaces reading about TIPS fundraisers, but not much else. But what happens on draft day plays a role on Sundays in the fall.
Reason 3: Cannot Get Enough Football
Some folks are such fanatics, they simply will watch everything and anything having to do with football. It’s not a matter of going through withdrawal. These people don’t necessarily scan the paper daily for football material. They just love football and, when it is on, they watch it. No dependency issues; just good clean weekend-lost-to-football fun.
Reason 4: Career Advertising
Many football fans want to have a career in football. Certainly, most of us have dreamed of winning the Super Bowl. Some of us dream of putting together a winning team. There are people out there who would like to have a career in a football team’s front office; even as General Manager. They think that a start to such a career is to scout college players and report on them on web pages. I don’t know if that works or not, but it’s something people try. I have to admit; if I had any scouting ability (or, at least, watched college football) I might try it myself. Or I’d put a package together and send it to several teams. (I don’t know how many team HR offices headhunt on fan sites.) But these people put some time and effort into it. There are debates over their accuracy in rating the talent level of prospects, but work is being done. More power to them.
Reason 5: Participation in the League
Being a fan of professional football is a very passive occupation. You sit in front of the television and watch. Or you sit in the stands and watch. And you can sit in front of the television and watch people talk about the football they’ve watched. Or you can sit in front of the radio and listen to people talk about the football they’ve watched. Every once in a while you buy a jersey or something, but that’s about it, activity-wise.
Some folks, on the other hand, dress up for the games in wild outfits. They yell loudly. They dance around. They high-five the yelling, dancing, costumed fan next to them. They believe they are participating in the game. I don’t know if they are or not. Either way, they are not passive.
Setting up mock drafts–or predicting what players will be chosen by what teams–and ranking players also creates the sense of active participation in the game. Sure, perhaps no scout or front office person will ever see my scouting report on player X. But if one does, then I’ve helped shape the draft and played a role in what will happen on Sundays in the fall. And, just like writing a piece about the NFL draft for a blog, just the illusion that someone is paying attention to it is enough to satisfy the need for participation.
Reason 6: Everyone Thinks She or He’s a GM
Very related to reasons 4 and 5. Everyone (and by “everyone” I mean “people who fit this particular description”) wants to be a GM. Everyone knows who to start and bench on Sundays. Everyone knows what plays to run. And everyone knows which players to draft. This, by the way, is also one of the two biggest reasons fantasy football is so popular, I believe. (The other is gambling.) It’s about building a team the way you think a team should be built. It’s fun and you can use it for bragging rights. (“I told you we should have drafted Tom Brady when we had the chance! I knew he was going to be great!”)
There is a difference between reason 4 and reason 6. In reason 4, the fan is putting in the hard work and actually trying to make a go of it. In reason 6, the fan is using the hard work of the reason 4 fan, but isn’t actually putting in any hard work. In many ways, that makes the reason 6 fan more managerial than the reason 4 fan, wouldn’t you say?
Reason 7: The Draft isn’t a Big Event
So many of the folks reporting on the hugeness of the draft do so by comparing it to drafts of yore. I’m not sure that the draft is any bigger than before; but the media is. We have so many more outlets for getting information. We have so many more outlets for sharing information. We have so many communication routes to reach the reporters and columnists to ask about the draft. That there’s two-day full coverage of the draft, months of previews, and weeks of post-scripts is only the media catching up to the fans and overtaking them to the point of over-production–like they always do when they find something popular. It only seems like the beast has grown. It may be bigger, but that’s only because is was previously so underfed.
So those are my reasons for the popularity of the NFL draft. May the draft fanatics out there enjoy the weekend. May the loved ones of draft fanatics choose the use the time to enjoy your own hobbies. Me? I’ll be sitting in front of the television with my computer, my spreadsheets, my clipboard, my charts, a store-brand fruit-flavored soda, and a mound of nachos. For those of you still concerned about a loved one’s obsession with the NFL draft, take heart:
At least they’re not showing up at comic book conventions dressed as their favorite collegiate athletes.
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The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer and do not neccessarily reflect those of the rest of the family.
© 2008, Mark Wentz