NFL draft

(Warning:  This blogpost contains plenty of Sports Crappola)

As I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of the NFL but I do love the draft.  I can't explain why, exactly, since I have zero interest in how pro teams do and even less interest in the Super Bowl (I know what I just said; it was intentional).  I am a Draftnik, although the days of watching the first two rounds of the draft are long gone.  I keep up with the prospects and read virtually anything that I can find on them, trying to evaluate what would be the best move for the Chicago Bears, since that's the team with which I'm most familiar.

There is plenty about the draft that cracks me up.  First, the people who actually attend the draft wearing their teams' jerseys and then have seizures when the picks are announced; the players when drafted putting on baseball hats; the green room where people dress up better than many of them would to go to church; and the breathless announcing by Mel Kiper and others of stats that just roll of their tongues like their own social security numbers do (how do they memorize all those forty times, tackles for loss, GPA's, shuttle times, Wonderlic scores, etc.?).

In the buildup to the draft, Kiper and McShay, principally, and virtually every other sports outlet publishes their Mock First Round Draft, where they try to predict what teams will choose which players.  These are great conversation starters, but if one were to ascertain their accuracy, they'd fall far short of being accurate.  Too often, clubs will leak misinformation in the guise of providing a reporter with a scoop who in turn feeds it to the draft expert who then puts it out there like he's a savant.  The team officials must have a lot of fun with those.

Over the years I've been involved with rotisserie basketball and last year did my first year of fantasy football just for grins.  I'm more knowledgeable about basketball than football, but I placed a respectable third in the football league.  For a first-timer, that's not too bad.  What these experiences have shown me is that a person with moderate involvement in a sport can probably do just as well drafting players as the high-priced experts hired by the teams do.  They all want us to think they're the latest Gil Brandt who can uncover hidden gems that no one else can find, when in fact the science of drafting has advanced too far for anyone to be a Gil Brandt ever again.  What's more, there are just as many players that don't pan out chosen by general managers as there would be by fans.  Sure, they may have some inside information, but by and large, they're taking as much of a gamble as anyone else is.

I think an equally interesting fantasy sport would be fantasy general manager.  Admittedly, it would have a very limited season, and it would probably only work for football.  It might have worked for basketball before foreign players began to get drafted, but no more.  And forget baseball and hockey, since those sports draft kids out of high school and junior hockey in the frozen tundra.

Here's my pitch:  Each year when a draft is held, take the players drafted in the first round and mark them as being Hall of Famers, Pro Bowlers, journeymen or busts.  After five years or so, take out the draft lists and see who's got more correct.  This notion of trying to pick which team will draft which player is impossible, given the trades that occur, so why bother?  Besides, that doesn't prove anything.  What a GM does is try to get the player that will help his squad.  Therefore, assess the players' potential by categorizing his expected accomplishments.  For example, Jerry Rice was drafted out of Mississippi Valley State in the first round by the San Francisco 49ers.  Great.  But who knew then that he'd be a Hall of Famer?

This has a very narrow focus group, I admit.  But to those of us who enjoy sports, it's an intriguing idea, given the fact that most of us think we could do at least as well as the well-paid general managers who make these picks.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles