Tar Heel Fan

Let it be known that I watched a good portion of the NFL Draft’s 1st Round.  And had I been at home and not at someone else’s house I would have made better use of my time.  Here are some of things that caught my eye.

• It was six hours for 32 picks. Six. Freaking. Hours.  Am I the only one who thinks this is a problem?  Doesn’t the NFL care that they subject their own people to this level of tedious boredom?  Six hours for the whole draft might be more in line but six hours for each team to take one turn picking someone borders on excessive in ways I cannot describe.  I mean I can cook Thanksgiving turkey faster than that.
• Brady Quinn’s fall from potential top five multi, multi-millionaire to just plain multi-millionaire was humorous and sad all at the same time.  And when I say sad I am not talking about the money.  Quinn will get a good contract and with his endorsements he will make plenty of coin.  The sad part was ESPN and their repeated beating of Quinn on every pick that went by after Miami passed on him.  Quinn was getting shown even when a team that had absolutely no need for a QB passed on him.  Someone at the NFL decided Quinn had twisted in the wind long enough and placed him somewhere private where he undoubtedly ripped his agent to shreds on the phone.
• Mel Kiper apparently graded everyone below A this year and I am really wondering if he was peeved some teams did not draft the players he thought they should draft.  I think with Kiper this schtick started out as a great idea with him expertly projecting college players in draft has grown(along with his hair) to him expressing a bit of an ego as well.  The problem with grades is no one knows how it will all turn out so grading the teams now is like evaluating seed.
•  No Tar Heels were taken in the draft though Jesse Holley was picked up as an undrafted free agent.  NC State had three defensive players taken to go along with the four from last year which included #1 pick Mario “I Drive 65″ Williams.  Amazingly enough, despite the obvious NFL talent, NC State finished with the same record as UNC who had none.
• The funniest part of the draft was when the analysts were discussing Calvin Johnson and talked about his ability to adjust to bad throws while implying that he had learned to do so from many opportunities to practice.  Of course if Johnson thought Reggie Ball was bad wait until he deals with the Detroit QB ranks.
•  Roger Goodell is close to being a fascist dictator.  All these years I thought David Stern was the unquestioned hardline commissioner who ruled with absolute authority.  Then Goodell comes along and starts suspending players for things they do off the field of play which has usually been the purview of the team since they are the employer.  Goodell has raised the stakes in an effort to the keep the image of the league as pristine as possible.  So the question we really ought to be asking is not which one of these first rounders will make the Pro Bowl first but which one will be the first to get slapped by Goodell with a long suspension for being stupid away from the stadium.  And yes, somewhere David Stern is taking notes and feeling awfully jealous.

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