ESPN does a very good job of feeding the insatiable beast that is fan hankering for NFL Draft coverage, prime contributors being the Joe, Bob or Carl in the cubicle next to you who is always talking about “who the Redskins will take at No. 13″ or, better yet slightly off-topic but similar in nature, “that five-star DB [INSERT NCAA TEAM HERE] is chasing.” Cubicle GM has three random guys largely spread across the Eastern seaboard who write whilst trying to complete the menial tasks associated with a “real world” job. But, where we lack resources, we can compete with discussion.
Two points here, for broader consumption. For the first, a discussion on how the heck we got to be this way. In the second, I will direct your attention to other good NFL Draft resources worth reading.
Point #1: American sports discussion in the present day is focused on at least 60% “off the field” issues, to include T.O.’s latest charade, the NFL/NBA drafts, college football/basketball recruiting, fantasy sports, the list continues.
I’m not saying this is a bad thing, just making a point. Not sure Cubicle GM (and many other sports blogs) would exist in their current forms were this not the case. Sports discussion today is to you as your grandmother is to Days of Our Lives. Or something like that. We just can’t help follow the soap opera, whatever it be. Maybe it’s not sports, maybe it’s even bigger; I’ll focus on sports for the sake of finishing this before 2pm.
Take a close look at Exhibit A:
Ah, ha. The ESPN Front Page at 1:06pm EST. Disregard headers, which are standard. This is not to pick on ESPN, but simply as an example. You can find other examples here, here, and here. Again, I’m not disparaging on this characteristic of our sports news, just commenting.
Carrying on…
First draw your eyes to the main story on the NFL Draft. Of course! It’s the week’s biggest sports story, save the NBA and NHL playoffs and start of baseball season. It is also the “softest”; simply put, you can take it almost anywhere. I say the Redskins will take Michael Oher, you say they will trade up to get Mark Sanchez. Who knows, right? Then our favorite experts conduct mock drafts, tracked in detail by sites like these and mocked by Gregg Easterbrooke in the ESPN lead story above.
Now, how about headlines in the far right column. Some pregame swagger, a bit of award reporting, NFL free agency and its associated blog, NFL free agency swagger and its associated blog, a fine for a major league troublemaker who was doing his best to clean his image by talking to a local Little League but instead showing up late for the game and getting fined (but he got paid for the appearance?), and a new look for T.O.’s media career. I’ll give about 4-of-9 (44%) stories in that list “on-the-field” relevance, for game previews and results, awards, etc. The rest (56% rounds up to 60%) are micro story lines in this giant soap opera.
The point is that we rarely talk about the games anymore. We talk about Stafford and the Lions, who’s entering the NBA draft, Haynesworth’s $100M, that next five-star recruit, academic suspensions, and on and on. Nevermind that Elijah Dukes went 2-for-4 with a run, RBI and SB. We’re concerned as to 1) why this Great Falls Little League would pay him $500 for his appearance, probably what he spends at the K Street Lounge in DC on a day off, and 2) why the Nationals would fine him the equivalent amount, then let the Little League reimburse Dukes for the fine.
It seems that we are generally bored by the games themselves (hey, beer man!) and have begun to replace those by creating our own teams (see, I won my league last year, what the heck does Jack Zduriencik know?) and intensely following any bit of drama that appears during the fitful, 24-hour news cycle that includes only about six hours when the games are actually being played.
All that aside…
Point #2: If you are looking for some good reading during one of the most banter-filled weeks of the sports calendar, check out our favorite links below for NFL draft coverage.
An impressive, comprehensive breakdown by position, team and about every other perspective you could think of at Draft Daddy.
An innovative way to take Facebook stalking to truly professional level, courtesy of the NFL itself and reported by The Detroit Free Press.
A take on pre-draft smokescreens during a Texans fan’s favorite time of the year.
And, for today, five sleepers for the 2009 draft, as if Google couldn’t get enough traffic.
I’ll continue with links and a story or two this week worth reading relevant to the NFL Draft. If you want detailed player profiles and Mel Kiper, go to ESPN or elsewhere, by all means. But if you’re open to a bit more laid back discussion from your cubicle on The Dirty Sanchez and its place in NFL glory, check back with us now through this weekend and beyond.
