Out of control NFL draft coverage

The amount of minutes on TV and radio and inches in newspapers and on the Web devoted to the NFL draft is just crazy. I'm part of it because we're doing it at our paper as well, but is it too much? The cover story in this week's Sports Illustrated is an NFL draft preview.

Seriously, it's just the draft. I know that the NFL is big now, but it seems a little big excessive. Am I in the minority here? Who really cares about how somebody thinks the draft will play out. Does it matter? Can't we just wait and see how the damn thing plays out this weekend?

 

I think the issue here is that people like to think they're ahead of the curve when it comes to the future. They want to be the one that says "I told you Brady Quinn was going to be a stud." And the print media gives the readers what they want.

SI will have a NBA draft preview as well. The trouble is that TV, in particular ESPN but also others, has turned the draft into an event, and it's coverage on screen and online has overloaded those of us who do this for a living. What we may think is overboard may not seem that way to the average viewer.

 

It's excessive the way spring football is excessive.
The more you give the addicts coverage, the more they want. The people who don't care, suffer through it.

 

I'm fine with draft coverage.

But I cringe at "mock drafts", and I especially cringe when I see one like SI did, with cutouts of players and blurbs with each. That's the kind of display that should be reserved for when the picks are actually made.

All it takes is one or two deviations --- which usually occur very early --- to topple the entire apple cart and to make any mock draft pure fiction.

 

Last year was the first year I noticed this phenomenon: The NFL will not go away.

There is no fucking offseason anymore. There's been a story a day since the Super Bowl. Twenty percent of every SportsCenter is devoted to the NFL. (Not to mention all the new episodes of "NFL Live".)

And it's the one reason why I had trouble getting into the NFL last season, and why I fear I will again next season. It's hard to get excited for the start of something that never fucking ended.

The NFL has become something I never thought it would become: clingy.

 

USA Today has had a different draft preview package every day this week. I wonder if it helps sales. Probably does or they wouldn't be doing it. Some people can't get enough football or this overload of stories would just be ingnored.

 

Thing is, it gets to play to fans love of both college and NFL football. Not only do you get to sit around and wait to see what your favorite pro team does, you can sit around and root on the kids from your school to go high in the draft. When else do you get to root for your two favorite teams in one event?

But still, I agree with people on here, things like ESPN's mock drafts are silly. Except for MAYBE the first few picks, it's impossible to forecast. Trades and crazy GMs can screw everything up.

 

Just wait until the MLB draft gets bigger. It seemed like the beast was growing last season with all the online coverage; I can only imagine that this year's event is going to be bigger.

 

The story about the history/evolution of the draft is pretty sweet, though.

 

The next person who uses the word "upside" on my television gets the Elvis treatment. I am very serious.

 

The most overblown, overhyped non-sports event of the year!

 

There's nothing quite as mind-numbing as sitting on your couch and trying to watch the first round of the draft. Mel Kiper alone is enough to make a person run screaming from a room. Add in Berman, and I'd take my chances in Ann Coulter's tunnel of love.