Draft Madness?

-Shark

Why are we so crazy about the NFL Draft? We’ve had Draft preview shows running daily on ESPN for more than a month; we have countless newspapers, websites, and draft guides giving us tips on who this year's hidden gems will be; and of course, we have Draft god Mel Kiper who demonstrates his omnipresence every time I turn on the television.

Today, Cold Pizza was interviewing a player from Harvard who is predicted to be the last player in the draft. I repeat. The LAST player in the draft. There is a reason why the last guy drafted gets called Mr. Irrelevant. So what makes them think anyone would want to watch an interview with this guy?

Unless you've somehow managed to avoid the Draft previews completely, which is impossible, then you already know that the NFL draft is a pretty big crapshoot. For every "can't miss" prospect like Tim Couch and Ryan Leaf that doesn't make it, there are guys you probably have never heard of like rookie of the year Marcus Colston and stock boy turned MVP: Kurt Warner. Once the first round is finished, go back and see how close the experts were in their mock drafts. If they get 10 picks correct in the first round then they did a very good job. The rest of the draft is an even bigger gamble. It just seems pretty irrational that someone will listen to weeks of "expert" discussion, read endless mock drafts, and partake in hours of water-cooler debates, all over something that is almost completely unpredictable. . .

Except that's your answer right there. The draft IS almost completely unpredictable. The chaotic nature of the draft gives every fan hope that their team might land the next Who? (Kurt Warner), the next Where did you say he went to school? (Jerry Rice), and possibly the next Thank God he's still on the board (Vince Young). No team is in last place on Draft Day and every fan has the right to dream of its team playing in January or simply climbing out of the divisional cellar. We DO want to see interviews with Mr. Irrelevant because we all want a glimpse at a current nobody who could be a future Disney movie…something that speaks of triumph in the face of adversity, but scares off viewers because its given a stupid one-word title like “Invincible” …oh my bad.

If we were intelligent beings we’d simply wait to see which players our team drafted and then start from there. We wouldn’t spend hours upon hours speculating over something that we have absolutely no control over. However, we are not intelligent beings, we are sports fans. For us, the NFL draft is very much like New Year’s Eve: it gives us an excuse to start over, an excuse to imagine how the upcoming year will be better, and best of all, an excuse to have a few drinks and celebrate for no real good reason. Happy NFL Draft Day.

-Brian Sharkey