Okay, those of you that are close personal friends of Wendy (me) know that I am a NFL Draft groupie. I LOVE watching the draft on TV. I have been known to Tivo it if I am going to be out when it is going on but I usually like to watch at least the first two rounds on TV live.
My obsession started many, many years ago (I freaked today when I realized exactly how many years ago it was) when I had knee surgery. I had a skiing accident that pretty much ended my professional shopping career. Oh of course, I was able to keep my amateur status and I could have gone triple A or even to the Canadian league but everyone knows Canadian dollars aren't real money and if you aren't going to make it to the show why bother? Soooooo anyhoo, I was home recovering from my surgery, trapped on the couch, attached to a machine that bent my knee for me continually. I had pretty much run through all of the daytime television and late March is pretty dismal for sports on TV. So I came across the draft and I was hooked!! It has everything, drama, comedy, excitement. There is nothing like the heartbreak of following a draft hopeful that is projected to go early in the first round and watch him slip to the mid or end of the second, signifying a loss of salary in the hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. The draft is held in NY and as a result there are always Jets and Giants fans on hand. These fans are rabid and are very vested in who their team drafts. Usually they heartily approve or they are so despondent after their team picks that I am surprised no one has jumped from the balcony in the theatre. Sometimes the cameras will show the crowd after the pick and the fans can be slapping each other on the back in joy or have their heads in their hands seemingly trying to make some sense of the disastrous pick of some idiot front office guy who probably never played a down in his life.
So when we moved here, I resigned myself that my draft watching days were over. Last year, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that they had a tape delayed mini version of the draft. They go through it really quickly. you don't get all the analysis or the drama or the commercials and I think they went through the whole first 2 rounds in about an hour and a half. Usually the first round runs well over 4 - 5 hours so to do two rounds that quickly, you know you are getting "draft-lite". In fact our ESPN feed of the draft is hosted by a man who really doesn't know much about American Football at all but he is American and large so I guess that is his qualification. But us expat beggars can't be choosers so I will take what I can get.
This year, I decided to check and see when "draft-lite" would be on when what did my eyes see? There on the TV guide channel the words that brought a tear to my eyes "NFL American Football Draft - LIVE". Live? Live??? I had to blink. Blink again. Hell yes it was live. I watched the entire first round, right up to the time the NFL commissioner handed the announcing job over to Gene Washington. Now, they won't show the other rounds, I don't think but that is okay. All the really good stuff happens in the first round anyway. I am definitely satisfied. I leave you with a quote from Yogi Berra, famous American baseball player/manager, which I think describes the beauty of the draft succinctly.
"You can observe a lot just by watching."
Damn straight Yogi, damn straight.
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