Contain Your Excitement: Three Long Days of NFL Draft

by Jeremiah Tittle

While a fellow sports fan said to me yesterday that “the NFL is the only sport that can pull off a primetime draft”, it is apparent that Roger Goodell’s plan to elevate the spectacle of this modern day slave trade to must-see TV is working. My cousin is in town for only a week, and the one ‘event’ on his schedule which could not be missed is to watch the NFL Draft on TV.

At first, I was perplexed by so many fans’ reaction to the change in scheduling, but apparently Goodell’s elaborate marketing ploy is working. They shortened the down time between picks in individual rounds to enhance the viewer’s experience. They’ve separated the first round, held on Thursday night, from the second and third rounds which are held on Friday night. For those die hard football freaks, the fourth through the seventh rounds take place on Saturday.

While this new and improved event extending into the weekend will gather formidable ratings, and will add another notch to Goodell’s bedpost, as a devout member of Sports Fans Coalition, all this hype, energy, and effort – going into a system that essentially already works – begs the question, ‘Don’t you have anything better to do?’

Shouldn’t the NFL be focused on issues of greater importance like knowing when to stop the extortion of tax dollars for stadiums, concessions, merchandise; ending blackouts for cities in economic despair; or preventing perps like Ben Roethlisberger from assaulting women. It appears there are several issues the NFL can and should be focusing on during the off-season, much less the NFL Draft.

No matter the celebration of friends, family, and the die hards.

I, for one, will contain my excitement.

Jeremiah Tittle is the Managing Editor of SportsFansCoalition.org.