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One day an idea was born. According to John Wildhack, a production assistant with the fledgling all-sports cable network ESPN in 1980, recalls hearing about a conversation between his boss and the commissioner of the NFL, Pete Rozelle.
Chet Simmons, the president of ESPN at the time, approached Rozelle in 1979 to ask if his network could do a live broadcast of the draft.
"Why would you want to do that?" was Rozelle's response. After an initial 28-0 "no" vote by the owners, Rozelle and the league gave in the following spring and let ESPN televise the NFL draft from a New York City hotel ballroom.
Once considered so unimportant the draft was held during the season until the late 1960s and only a handful of teams had college scouts. According to long time Dallas Cowboy personnel director Gil Brandt, team officials coming to the draft would have little more than a pile of newspapers, Street and Smith college football magazines and a roll of quarters to call players. "They didn't have phones on the desks back then, so you had to go out to the lobby and use the pay phones," Brandt recalled.
Teams now spend millions on scouting. Their draft analysis of the college football players includes hours of video tapes and countless drills that the players perform at the 3 day NFL scouting combine.
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This is where the scouts earn their money, watching players run the 40 yard dash, do the broad jump, 20 yard shuttle and all the other drills, so they can see their physical attributes. Then there's the interviews, the drug screening and that wacky wonderlic test, with all this to evaluate, a player can go from a multi million dollar contract to not hearing his name called at all at the NFL draft.
A small army of league officials is needed to stage the event, which draws 4.000 fans at the Radio City Music Hall and 250 people are needed to produce ESPN's 18 hours of coverage, which millions of people watch at home.
The crowds at the NFL draft are crazy. You have most teams represented with fans wearing their favorite jersey or dressed up in a wild costume that makes it look like the NFL's version of halloween.
I can't help you with halloween costumes, but for any jersey I buy mine at NFL FAN GEAR
With all the hype an anticipation of hearing the commissioner say "Welcome to the 2008 NFL draft, the Miami Dolphins are now on the clock", the focus now becomes who is going to be the number 1 pick in the draft this year.
Whether you watch the ESPN telecast or the NFL Network production, the endless analysis of every player taken or those players yet be taken, will keep you informed right up to the second anything happens.
During the NFL draft you will taken inside the war room of teams to show you the inner workings of how they evaluate and choose their player. Some NFL teams show you why they are championship caliber by their astute drafting, [New England Patriots]. Then there are other NFL teams that show you why they are perennial losers with their clueless drafting,[My Detroit Lions]......................................................................... NFL FAN GEAR
Being the first pick in the NFL draft does not guarantee success. Since 1936 there has been 72 drafts and only 10 players have made the NFL Hall Of Fame.
Lets look at a couple of draft picks that turned out to be steals for their teams:
QB Joe Montana {Notre Dame}
Drafted by: San Francisco 49ers, third round, No. 82 overall pick in the 1979 NFL Draft
The 49ers didn't exactly have to go off the beaten path to find Joe Montana, but he was far from a can't- miss prospect coming out of Notre Dame. Even the 49ers weren't sure about his future when they drafted him, so much so that he backed up Steve DeBerg for a year and a half before becoming the starter. Then he went on to win 4 Super Bowls, 3 SUPER BOWL MVP awards, made All Pro 7 times and 2 NFL MVP awards.
QB Tom Brady {Michigan}
Drafted by: New England Patriots, sixth round, No. 199 overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft
The Patriots weren't really looking for their next franchise quarterback; a solid backup would have suited them fine. The Patriots watched quarterbacks such as Giovanni Carmazzi and Spergon Wynn come off the board before they selected Brady. The rest is history. He has played in 4 Super Bowls, winning 3 of them, 2 Super Bowl MVP awards and 1 NFL MVP award.
Lets look at a couple of draft picks that turned out to be busts for their teams:
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QB Ryan Leaf {Washington State}
Drafted by: San Diego Chargers, first round, No. 2 Overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft
The Chargers gave up plenty to move up one spot to select Leaf, who many felt was a better prospect than Tennessee QB Peyton Manning. With a lifetime 4-17 record as a starter, with the Chargers {4-14} and Cowboys {0-3}, Leaf threw 14 TD passes and 36 interceptions and was sacked 65 times in 25 games in four NFL seasons. Meanwhile, Peyton Manning reportedly is doing fine with the Indianapolis Colts.
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WR Charles Rogers {Michigan State}
Drafted by: Detroit Lions, first round, No. 2 overall pick in the 2003 NFL Draft
Rogers put up monster numbers at Michigan State and was supposed to solve Detroit's issues at wide receiver. Instead he became the first of four wide receivers chosen by the Lions in the first round with only WR Roy Williams living up to his potential. Rogers is currently unemployed.
As you can can see the NFL Draft has many ingredients that go into it; scouting, interviews, production of the broadcast, analysis, and finally that card that is taken up to the podium to call out your pick.
After watching the NFL Draft and you either want a current player's jersey or a new draft picks jersey go to NFL FAN GEAR
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