There are several positive things about the NFL draft. For example, it allows 248 healthy young men to have an ego-filling fifteen minutes of fame. Many of those have achieved the equivalent of a high school education by investing four seasons in NCAA athletics and will never know another moment of football glory until they receive local notoriety on homecoming day a dozen years from now.

Another good thing about the draft -the true reason the NFL needs it- is that it holds ticket prices down to a reasonable exorbitant price. If each of the teams had to bid for each year's college crop, it would be very difficult to field 31 teams. As long as the Deuce McAllisters and Michael Vicks can dicker with only one team, they  will have to sign or begin a career as a swimming instructor or heart surgeon. 

The third nice thing about the draft is that it makes it possible to field a team in some of our lesser garden spots. Really, can anyone find fifty or so healthy young men who prefer freezing their hip pads off in Cincinnati to lolling on a California beach? 

So the draft manages to delude 248 muscular youngsters into thinking they are as important as beer at a frat house and then bring them back to earth by forcing them to play for fewer six-packs than their agents tell them they are worth. And some end in up in places they would never visit sober. It's THE STING without Redford and Newman. I love it!

The draft is one more pleasant delusion for fans. It that keeps us going though the gray days and brightens our darkest off-season nights. Like when we were kids and at age eleven thought that, well, maybe here might be a Santa Clause anyway.  We dream that next year our favorite team will have that quarterback, that runner, that linebacker, and all will be well in the win-loss column. Some begin anticipating next year's draft in September - about the time we discover last year's draft wasn't the answer. By bleak December when the fumbles, the missed tackles, the penalties have piled NFL playoff hopes into a helpless heap, we can take solace in each defeat improving our drafting position. 

For all it's warts, the NFL draft will continue to fascinate fans. Every April, more people watch the selection show on ESPN than pay for a ticket to see a live game. It's that one day per year when everyone can delude himself into thinking his team is a winner. However, even a  first-year court reporter knows it's illegal as hell. In this country, you just can not go around telling people they can only work at their chosen trade in just one place.

Image a landscaper being told. "You can't scape land at our San Diego home office, even though there's an opening, and even though you are the best one to fill it. You see, our competitors in Buffalo, New York have already claimed you as an employee. They won't pay you as much as we would and the working conditions aren't as nice, but that our agreement. Our hands are tied. So just go to Buffalo and call us after you've had five years of service with them." 

Several draft-fixers have suggested that the league return to awarding "bonus picks" to bottom teams, as it did in 1950s. They suggest that the only way of improving a lot of the lesser teams would be to start with awarding ten 'bonus' picks to the teams with the poorest record. These non-tradable picks would be drawn for the five weakling teams. If the NFL were really serious about equalizing competition, it might go that route. Imagine today's Browns or Falcons with three selections each within the first fifteen selections. With that type of opportunity, it would be realistic to expect them to better themselves in a short period of time. Where one prime prospect will have very limited effect on a team, three all-or-nothing draftees can make a difference. 

~TC~

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