The 2010 NFL Draft - Round 1, A Few Quick Observations

The Thursday broadcast of the NFL 2010 Draft first round closed out last night around 10:15 PM (CST), and I was left a feeling a bit sad. Not because of the picks my Lions made (I love Suh, and am okay with coming up to get Best), but because I wanted another round or two. There was something special about the football geekery of watching round after round after round and completely wasting a Saturday in April’s past. Now this thing is getting more accessible and friendly to the less than die hard fans, by breaking it apart into more palatable chunks. True the damn first round was still 4+ hours long, but we were just getting warmed up dammit!

I really wanted to see if the Vikings would indeed grab Clausen at #34 or if the Rams would deal, and let someone else jump up to #33 and take him in fear of the Vikings selecting the him. Personally, I’d love it if Favre nixes another year, and leaves the Vikings with T-Jack and Clausen to flutter passes into the turf all season. Now I have to wait until tonight.

Some other observations:

- I thought ESPN’s coverage was awfully awkward for some stretches. Some weird spans of silence happened a few times, and that pinkish-orange light they had Chuckie and Steve Young bathed in made it look like they spent too much time on the tanning bed.

- Speaking of Steve Young, that guy needs to do something about his hair. It’s clear that he’s nearly completely bald on top, and he looks foolish gelling up what he does have left up there. Get a rug, some plugs, or man up and don’t hide it Steve.

- Roger Goodell seemed extra huggy-huggy with some of the picks.  He embraced Drew Brees at the end of the 1st round more than was probably necessary

- Although its happened in years past, I was more annoyed than ever this year with the camera being on the kid on the phone who is about to be drafted. It takes all the suspense out of the Commish’s announcement.

- The best drama of the night was when Denver traded up to get Tebow at #25. Mel Kiper looked like he was gonna have a stroke, Steve Young was irate, and Tom Jackson was beside himself. That’s the kind of reality TV I like to watch.

- I’m tired of hearing what a ‘class-act’ another player who wasn’t drafted yet is because he was gracious enough to acknowledge and congratulate someone drafted in front of him. Case in point, Jimmy Clausen texting a congratulations to Tim Tebow. Whatever – it doesn’t take much to do this, just a minor sense of decency.

- I’m also tired with the over-the-top ‘fan’ reactions to every pick. And its not just Eagles and Jets fans now either. They need to start screening who they let in there (or at least stop panning the audience), as every year it seems to be a larger and larger collection of assholes and miscreants.  I found myself wishing Goodell would let loose a few of the D-lineman drafted early into the stands to clear out some of the riffraff. Seeing Suh and McCoy bounce some a-hole Pats fan out on a cold, hard New York sidewalk is an appealing image to me.