The NFL Draft

This past weekend, April 29 and 30, the NFL conducted its annual draft in New York City and like everything associated with the league there was tons of hoopla.

The draft is an exciting time for fans of NFL teams because it is a time of hope as each teams adds a handful of college prospects to the roster for the upcoming year. Each player selected has the potential to be a major contributing factor on the field. Each team believes its selections were the right choice after taking months to prepare a draft board and rank each prospective talent.

As a viewer, the draft has some suspense involved and it makes for some great T.V. because there is always an unknown element about what name each team has written down for its selection. As NFL commissioner Rodger Goodell reaches the podium to announce the pick there is a moment of hesitation for fans while he says, "With the XX pick in the 2007 NFL draft, XX team selects.... so and so." Then within a second of naming the player the fans present at the draft venue, New York Radio City Music Hall, either let out a chorus of boos or cheers, depending upon their opinion of the pick. It really is great live theatre.

However, nothing is perfect in life and this holds true for the draft.

As wonderful and enjoyable the draft is to watch, the first day alone takes 6 hours and that is only three of the seven rounds. In the first round each team is given an unnecessary 15 minutes to decide its pick. With all the information each team has regarding a player, one would believe it was possible to make each selection in under 5 minutes, which they have to do starting from round three on. But in each round, even the last, this is not the case because each team chooses to spend the entire allotted time to make a pick.

The league's desire for money, which seems to be a very real possibility since 6 hours of advertising space generates a lot of income, is understandable but at some point enough is enough. The apparent waste of time is a major drawback to the entire event. This year teams were not held accountable for going over their allotted draft time, which should mean the team picking next has the option to jump in and make its selection. More than a few times the clock would show 0:00 and Commissioner Goodell had not started walking to the podium.

The league could, and should, cut down its allotted time for selecting picks because 6 hours of drafting borders on ridiculous. Fans would still watch and ESPN as well as the league would generate enough advertising revenue. A team should know which group of players it wants to select and when it comes time to be on the clock, a decision should be made quickly and passed to the Commissioner.

Watching the draft is exciting when teams are making selections, it's just a same the selections are not made in more rapid succession.