Pat Kirwan recently wrote on NFL.com about the 2006 college football draft. The annual NFL draft has become one of the largest non-event, events in all of professional sports. I learned a few things about life and American culture in general based on his comments. My reflections are in brackets. His statements are in italics.
The 2006 draft is over and only time will tell which teams had a successful draft. Actually, the right time to analyze this draft is at the end of the 2009 season. {Bill Parcells, the Cowboys head coach, recently commented about this even for players that are a known commodity. You never know if a player is going to flop, get hurt, doesn’t fit a scheme as good as you first though, etc. Every player is a gamble. And while the pundits give their report cards, usually you don’t know who will be a dud until a few years down the road. Life is a lot like that. What at first seems like such a good pick can turn into a huge disappointment. It doesn’t matter how you look at first. It matters what comes out in the end.
Stay in school (unless you are a going on the first day): Coming out of school early is great if your name is Mario Williams, Reggie Bush, Vince Young, Vernon Davis or any of the other first-round ions. But it is really awful when a guy gives up a year of his college experience and his name is called in the seventh round or not at all. Fred Matua, Stanley McClover and Dee Webb, among others, should have stayed in school. I feel even worse for receiver Greg Lee, linebacker Kai Parham and others who went undrafted. It always amazes me how players hear what they want to hear about what will happen to them if they leave school early. {Wow, I can understand how people dream about big paydays. Wouldn’t it be better for most of the late round guys to stay in school? Sometimes waiting can be the best play. I really agree about the tendency for people to hear only what they want to hear. I suffer from the same problem.}
A reality check: As the draft wrapped up late Sunday afternoon, I was reminded by a longtime NFL person that on opening day next September, we'll be lucky to see 15 of these young men in starting lineups around the league. {After all of the hype about the draft, very few of these guys will likely be starting this season. This reflects many things in American culture today where people get worked up about what doesn’t matter and ignore what does. Sure, the draft is where you build a team for the future. But expectations are just hopeful thoughts for the future until it becomes a reality on the field.}
