The draft moves to primetime, while it ruins the event for fans.
The NFL announced today that the draft will be stretched out over three days.
It will now start on a Thursday night for round 1.
Rounds 2 + 3 will proceed on Friday night.
Rounds 4-6 complete on Saturday.
What is the motivation in this? Roger Goodell is fishing for ratings, and he may well get them. But I don’t like it. The draft is an annual event, traditionally a weekend for hope for fans of every team in the league (except the Eagles, who hate all draft picks). Now, it will be a drawn out affair as the NFL sells out to corporate America even more than usual. As I said, the draft has always been an event. Groups of friends clear their Saturdays to gather around the TV, pimping their mock drafts, predicting the next pick while debating the last. Will that continue with the new set-up? I doubt it.
Sure, some groups of friends will still get together for the first or second round. But how many will stay together for 2 nights and another full day of draft action? People have lives outside of football, with our schedules becoming busier by the year.
This decision will pay off for the NFL, I’m sure, but it will kill the camaraderie the event has embodied in years past.
The Blue Duck 