I'm even more disappointed how the NFL has made a circus out of the Draft. First, I get it, it's all about ratings and trying to drive up the interest in the product. Last year 8.3Mill viewed the draft, that's incredible. As a long time follower (20 years) of the NFL draft, especially since 2008, it's been an utter joke. THE BAD - Why do we need over 2 dozen players in the green room? Akeem Ayers was so pissed, he refused to show up on Friday. I understand that's the chance you take, so if you don't think you're going in Round 1 stay home. In 2008 there were only 5/6 players, that's it. Gholston was the last one left. That green room was so crowded people could hardly move. - What's with all these hug fests? It seems it started a couple of years ago and has grown and grown. I can understand a few players being so excited they hug the commish, but it seems its now the norm and almost staged with some players. - Draft gone to 3 days and in primetime Thu & Fri......great for ratings, not so great for all fans. Our friends on the left coast are still at work/school on Friday at the start of round 2. I loved Saturday starting at noon Rounds 1-3 and Sunday Rds 4-7. Again, all about the mighty dollar. - ESPN coverage has gone down the shitter, too many remotes, going back to Bristol all the time and not enough "meat and potatoes" on each draft pick. Quite a few picks were made during commericals. Chris Berman is an embrassment. NFLN get's it, they go into better depth and coverage of the players being drafted. Mayock is the best thing that has happened to the NFLN. - Both networks show remotes of players on their phones, so there is very little suspense anymore. It was fun waiting in anticipation for your #1 pick being announced. Even McElroy wasn't a surprise since ESPN had a Remote at his house. THE GOOD - 1st Rd picks now 10 minutes vs 15. A very good move made a few years back.The draft needed to speed up, especially for the fans at Radio City. - Former players making the announcement in Rd 2, I liked seeing some of the vets.
This is the worst. I used to have group of guys that would get together at my house on Saturday. We would take an 8'X4' piece of wood and make a big board, grill out all day and drink beer. Now nobody gets together on Thursday because we all have to go to work Friday am. I really hate when Goodell talks about this like it's a great improvement.
out of everything listed, this is by far the worst... Hell I wouldn't be opposed to doing round 1 friday night and then 2-4 saturday and 5-7 sunday. But for the love of god, thursday and friday its nearly impossible to coordinate things. This year I was in a series of budget meetings thursday night, the last pick I saw live was Ponder, kept tabs on my phone but still not the same. Luckily I snuck back just in time to see the Jets tab Wilkerson though. Friday I caught the entire thing, but its not impossible that die-hards could easily miss those nights. Hell for fans to get to radio city its 50 billion times as hard. When the draft was Sat/Sun, you could drive down friday after work, go on sat sun, and drive home sunday night (drafted used to end about 7 pm on Sunday if I remember correctly...) No work time missed... Now if you want to go, you have to take off thursday, and friday of work. Hell you might even half to take off Wednesday because the tickets into RCMH seem to go first thing in the morning... The whole thing is a disgrace. On the networks giving away the picks with cameras of the guys on the phone, I don't have a problem with it. It leads to moments like this one below [YOUTUBE]3Xq9_n7Vhzg[/YOUTUBE] Sanchez couldn't have been happier to be a Jet and I couldnt be happier to see his natural reaction live and then be able to watch it over and over again. Fan-fucking-Tastic. I mean we have months and months to speculate and hold our breath in suspense of who is going where, what does 2-3 minutes really make? I mean really? It's also not like every single top prospect has a camera in house, nobody knew Christian Ponder was coming at 12, or Locker at 8 for that matter. There is still mystery to be had. On the hugging Goodell thing, Last year when Gerald Mccoy was drafted his hug was purely natural as were a couple guys directly following him. This year, you are right its like people pre-planned what they were going to do. I didn't like it, but then again, I think its more fun than a simple handshake. However, having 20 guys in the green room is retarded. Its stupid especially when you have nearly half of those guys projected to be 2nd or 3rd round picks. Hell what happens if one guy falls to day three? Does he really want to sit in the damn green room for 3 days? I sure don't. Hell what if they had invited Kendric Burney (Kiper's 80th overall player) and he sat in the green room for 3 days and wasn't picked? Horrible PR move. Take the top 5-7 guys and cap it there. It all started last year for one reason, they wanted to invite Tebow and since he wasn't likely to be a top 10 pick, they had to extend invites to a bunch of other guys as well outside that range. When Tebow declined them, they were stuck with it. Now they actually like it. Irritating.
chris berman needs to dissappear. the only thing i noticed was ESPN had better video footage of later round prospects. ill take mayock, eisen, faulk, and co. anyday over any assembly of ESPN douches
Agreed on Berman, he should not be employed. I hate how they discuss/break down the pick before the selection is made instead of after now.
I have yet to come across any fan that thinks the new format is good. The ESPN coverage was terrible - I was very happy to see it was live on UK tv but the coverage was so bad I ended up watching nfl network on my pc anyway.
I know what you mean but I still prefer that moment when the pick is being read out for it to be a surprise.
I would have more of a problem with this if it didn't help to further chip away Goodell's prestige as a commissioner. Nearly any part o NFLN's coverage that allows me to ignore the things he says generally gets my seal of approval. As for McElroy, NFLN was showing him before every other pick at that point. There was very little chance of him being that knd of a surprise unless you were just following the draft tracker online. Agree completely on the format and the players in the green room. The draft had a huge draw when it wasn't actlin an award show. Now it's just getting ridiculous.
This drives me crazy. I get that they're trying to drive up the 'excitement' for more players by allowing them to attend, but it really does slow down the pace when picks have to be held off from being announced because an entire family is out on the stage. Great moment for them, but the sheer number of invitees is insane.
