Do You Feel a Draft?

All weekend (or at least it seemed like all weekend) otherwise healthy adults were held captive indoors by ESPN's televised coverage of the NFL draft. From noon on Saturday until 6pm on Sunday, we were treated to Chris Berman and his pals debating whether or not the Seattle Seahawks made a mistake drafting a fullback from USC with the 163rd pick. Oy.

Meanwhile, the Houston Texans surprized the so-called experts by not taking Reggie Bush with the first pick, thereby rendering their expert opinions worthless. If they could not figure out who would be the first overall pick, what is the point of listening to them at all? They should be made to donate their paychecks to charity.

I suspect that the reason the draft coverage wound up on television at all is the need to provide programming. After all, most of us with cable TV have at least 80 channels from which to choose, and providing programming for everything from the Animal Channel to MTV is difficult. And, there's only so much poker we can watch. So, what better to fill 12 hours of programming on a major cable outlet than to have a bunch of pundits debating and reflecting on draft picks? Especially if people will watch. But, as we know, people will watch. Why? Because it's on TV.

Now, we will be subjected to more analysis of how each team did, with grades assigned to each draft, based on the experts - the same ones who didn't know that Bush wouldn't be the first overall pick. Valuable info, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, kids who are barely old enough to drink (legally) will be given more money than most of us will earn in a lifetime. Why? Because football is on TV.

It was sunny and 70 all weekend in Philly. As for me, I prefer to read the results in the newspaper today, rather than waste my time listening to forgettable opinions on players whom we will forget about after their third knee operation. I hope they spend their money wisely.