2023-04-27 17:39:00
Biggest sports event without sports
The unbridled NFL greed for the draft win
By David Needy
4/27/2023, 7:39 p.m
Three days of emergency: When the best talents are selected for the league in the NFL draft, no superlative is too big. Why were millions watching a sporting event without a second of sport? The phenomenon of hope hovers above everything – and greed for the next Tom Brady.
As 16th and 17th century Europeans cross towards what would become the United States, they are driven by faith and hope. Faith and hope for a better world. Many of the first discoverers and settlers dream of finding an earthly paradise or even the regained Garden of Eden in the “New World”. Colonial myths of this kind persist in American culture to this day, and the United States is considered the land of “unlimited opportunity”. Where even the almost impossible becomes possible.
And that imagination is what the NFL draft is all regarding. On Friday night it starts once more, the biggest sporting event in the world, in which there is not a single second of sport to be seen. It’s regarding greed for the big catch. The hope for a better world, in this case a football team that can win the Super Bowl. Defy all other teams and adversities and change the future of a franchise, a city, the entire league with one player selection. we believe Yes, we can!
NFL draft broadcasts on NITRO & RTL+ at a glance:
FreitagApril 28, 12:30 a.m.: Draft day 1 on free TV on NITRO and in the live stream on RTL+
SaturdayApril 29, 12:30 a.m.: Draft day 2 in the live stream on RTL+
SaturdayApril 29, 6 p.m.: Draft Day 3 in the original US broadcast on RTL+
The NFL draft is regarding a golden opportunity to land the next Tom Brady, the next Patrick Mahomes, the next superstar. Over three days, the 32 league teams select the best young stars from the college teams for their squad. Each club receives a pick in each of the seven selection rounds (Miami has none in the first round this year). The order of selection is in reverse order of placement in the previous season, each round beginning with the club with the worst record and ending with the Super Bowl champion. However, teams can also negotiate a trade before and during draft days and trade draft picks (including those for years to come) or current NFL players. So, should a team’s preferred player be drawn before it’s their turn, it’s possible for teams to trade their high picks live on draft day, as teams with picks further down offer packages of players and picks from the next. A wonderful spectacle: telephone lines glow every year, crazy situations are inevitable.
Poker game regarding Brady and Co.
The draft is a poker game. The cards are remixed. Drama, fates, myths – a gamble of perceived and missed opportunities. And above all, the phenomenon of hope hovers over the draft. A single new player can change everything. Can mold a good team into a title contender. Can even turn a losing squad into a Super Bowl winner. That is reality. It happens all the time in the NFL, the best football league in the world. That’s why the National Football League draft is so important, crazy and mystical. Everything is possible, everything is conceivable. That’s how they love it in the US.
Of course, the Super Bowl champs Kansas City Chiefs still have superstars Mahomes in their own ranks. Regardless of how last season went, now all teams are starting over to a degree. The draft is the one time of the year when each team believes they have a realistic chance of coming out on top. Because even if the Los Angeles Rams won the NFL title with a strategy of trades, i.e. players by swapping other players or draft picks, the 32 franchises mostly build their teams through the draft. And American football is a sport that can be turned around in just a year. For example, thanks to the selection of – as they say in the USA – a generational talent. This has happened so many times.
Finally, there is the story of Tom Brady. The now-retired Superstar playmaker showed what can be done with the draft. At 199th place in the sixth round, he was drawn in 2000 – leading the New England Patriots to six and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl title. Quarterback colleague Aaron Rodgers, who is considered by some to be even more talented, was only picked 24th by the Green Bay Packers in 2005. And last season, youngster Brock Purdy made a name for himself when he led his San Francisco 49ers into the NFC Championship Game as “Mr. Irrelevant”, the last player drawn in round seven.
Millions of fans spin the wheel
This year clearly shows how much the greed for the superstar means to the teams. As the weakest team last season, the Chicago Bears have the first pick most often used to select quarterback talent. This year, Bryce Young (Alabama), CJ Stroud (Ohio State), Will Levis (Kentucky) and Anthony Richardson (Florida) stand out. But because the Bears believe in their own young quarterback Justin Fields (11th pick in the 2021 draft), they have offered their first pick in this year’s draft in exchange. The Caronlina Panthers hit – and give up their best wide receiver, DJ Moore, the first round pick in 2024 and a second round pick from 2023 and 2025. All for the hope of getting the chosen one on the team.
Due to this striving for an improved team, millions of fans spin the wheel not only on the three draft days, but long before. In mock drafts, i.e. pro relationships, fans and experts play through every little detail. At the Combine public training sessions for college talent, where they do things like sprint, jump, or throw and catch balls, millions tune in. The concept was designed by legions of PR people – the NFL has the best in the country, of course – to keep fans busy during the off-season.
When the drawing finally comes, it becomes the largest non-sporting sporting event in the world. Then more people turn on the television on the three draft days – although not a single second of sport flickers across the screen – than at real sporting events in the other US leagues. Thousands of fans are there live on site. Crazy. Viewership for the 2022 draft reached one five-year low, but still averaged a good 10 million tuning-ins on day one (up from 15.6 million in 2020). For comparison, the 2022 NBA Finals were watched by an average of 12.4 million viewers in the United States. The player draw in the NFL is one of the most watched programs in spring every year, regardless of sport.
Hope reigns in the NFL draft
The college talent draw is becoming something of a reality TV miniseries. With action and drama pre-programmed, as the rules dictate that each club has just ten minutes to make potentially landmark selections. The first lap alone lasts more than four hours. And everyone wants to be there. The draft connects college football fans and NFL fans. The former want to know where their favorite players are going, and the latter what talents will make their team better.
When the NFL Draft goes down that night, the league will fire off another huge PR show. And fans will love the drama and spectacle. Because the deep-rooted conviction that everything is really possible slumbers in each individual. The hope that your own club will land the next superstar – and with him at some point stretch the Vince Lombardi Trophy into the evening sky in the Super Bowl.
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