dirt
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gonna date myself now but I have to say I became enamoured by the draft many years ago, probably because I envisioned myself as a NFL general manager or player personnel director in my dreams and mostly because the NFL draft seemed to shape the future of teams so much more than the MLB, and NHL drafts
I remember when the only source of information on the ongoing picks was a sports phone hot line that updated every 15 minutes and charged 15 cents a call. During the first round, I would feverishly call every 15 minutes as the Dallas pick grew close.
Back then Mel Kipers report was the only source of scouting reports (I still have his first book). Then came the late great Joel Buschbaum.
I even drove half hour cross the border to Detroit to pick up a copy of the USA Today to get the day after reviews as the USA Today wasnt available in Canada
Now...we know the pick almost the instant it is written on the card via twitter.
NFL Network and ESPN devote days of analysis. So called scouting reports are available by countless so called experts who open a website @selfproclaimeddraftexpert and tout their analyses while bragging about how many hours of watching tape they do after they come home from their day job.
Everyone has an opinion or a critique and its posted on social media...if you have a lot of followers, that opinion becomes gospel and is repeated over and over.
Where does that leave us now. In the 80's you waited until the season started, watched the games and came to your own conclusion that yes Rod Hill is a deer in the headlights and cant play
Now we analyze body language and read lips on the war cam and come to conclusions that are debated on talk radio.
Is the draft experience better now? sure its great to have access to the detailed scouting reports and you can sift through and find the guys that know what they are talking about
But man the white noise after a pick or the day after the draft sometimes sucks the fun out of it. Who gives a crap if joe schmoe from Yahoo sports gives us an F
Play it out on the field
Just my two cents
I remember when the only source of information on the ongoing picks was a sports phone hot line that updated every 15 minutes and charged 15 cents a call. During the first round, I would feverishly call every 15 minutes as the Dallas pick grew close.
Back then Mel Kipers report was the only source of scouting reports (I still have his first book). Then came the late great Joel Buschbaum.
I even drove half hour cross the border to Detroit to pick up a copy of the USA Today to get the day after reviews as the USA Today wasnt available in Canada
Now...we know the pick almost the instant it is written on the card via twitter.
NFL Network and ESPN devote days of analysis. So called scouting reports are available by countless so called experts who open a website @selfproclaimeddraftexpert and tout their analyses while bragging about how many hours of watching tape they do after they come home from their day job.
Everyone has an opinion or a critique and its posted on social media...if you have a lot of followers, that opinion becomes gospel and is repeated over and over.
Where does that leave us now. In the 80's you waited until the season started, watched the games and came to your own conclusion that yes Rod Hill is a deer in the headlights and cant play
Now we analyze body language and read lips on the war cam and come to conclusions that are debated on talk radio.
Is the draft experience better now? sure its great to have access to the detailed scouting reports and you can sift through and find the guys that know what they are talking about
But man the white noise after a pick or the day after the draft sometimes sucks the fun out of it. Who gives a crap if joe schmoe from Yahoo sports gives us an F
Play it out on the field
Just my two cents