Bumped to the top for day 2 of the NFL Draft. A heart WOO!! to Robert Ayers for being drafted in the first round by the Denver Broncos. --hooper
Well, today is the day!
It may seem odd that the NFL Draft receives so much attention and publicity. No other sport's draft even comes close to the sheer overhyping and overspeculating that occurs prior to and during the NFL's greatest offseason show. To me, though, the spectacle makes sense. For one, football is quite simply the biggest sport in the country (and yes, I know NASCAR's claims). Also, the timing works better for football than the other sports: with nearly four months between the last meaningful college football game and the draft, the NFL has the time to put players through workouts and build speculation. And building speculation is easy, what with all the football-only staff members on the major media sites with nothing better to do than update their mock drafts on a weekly basis. Lastly, there is more uncertainty in the draft. Who could have seen this coming, for example?
Oh, and there's this. Money lines:
"Everybody said if Marino was going to be around at that time, that they'd take Marino. Obviously, the Jets know something that the people up here don't."
or
"It's obvious to me right now that the Jets just don't understand what the draft is all about." -- Mel Kiper, way back... yeah, way back...
"We want Sapp! We want Sapp! We want Sapp!" -- NY Jets fans, right before...
"The New York Jets select: tight end from Penn State Kyle Reyes."
Even if the idea of televising a draft is a little over-the-top to you, you have to love the people-watching experience. You have Mr. Hair. You have Jets fans. You have Berman. You have Brady Quinn and a very, very unhappy girlfriend.
As to the Vols, we've pretty well covered their odds. Now it's just time to wait and see. The first-day drama will obviously be with Robert Ayers. He'll get picked up in one of the two rounds on Saturday, but to whom?
UPDATE: Be serious now; how many of you don't think Stafford's career with the Lions won't look something like this:
I warned you...