Feeling the Draft

For some reason, I am totally obsessed with the Draft.

No, I'm not talking about beer. I'm talking about the annual player selection process carried out by the major sports leagues in the USA.

The NFL Draft 2007 took place over the weekend and for the umpteenth time, I decided to watch the darn thing live over the internet. That means I had to stick to my computer in the middle of the night and listen to the webcast provided by ESPN.

Unfortunately for me, the ESPN channel for the Far East region never broadcasts such a damn thing here, the reason being extremely simple: Who the hell in Hong Kong would be interested watching the 32 NFL teams select players who have just left college?

Excuse me, did you see that I have been raising my hand for ages?

By the way, did I mention that the whole thing lasted for two days over 18 hours in total? Among the seven rounds in this year's draft, the first round alone lasted for over six hours. And I only managed to watch just over half of it before succumbing to tiredness.

As usual, I would create a Microsoft Word file for the draft so that I can pick it up and know which players the Dallas Cowboys, my favourite team, has just picked.

Yeah, I know it's kind of crazy to do such a meaningless (to others) and tiring (to me) thing year after year. Luckily for me, my wife understands that I am such a crazy guy and would simply leave me alone (which is not that difficult as all she has to do is to remain asleep) when I am listening to the webcast and typing the information into the file in the middle of the night.

So I am confident to say that not many person was more surprised and disappointed than I was when the Cowboys took placekicker Nick Folk in the sixth round (178th pick overall) even though the highly regarded Mason Crosby was still available, who would be picked by the Green Bay Packers just 15 picks later.

One thing I have to admit: I am in love with the NBA Draft too, and as it is more user-friendly to me in terms of the time it would be held (which starts sometime around seven or eight in the morning), I would often take a sneak peek at the Draft's website while I was working in office, even though I know very well that my boss may appear behind me at the most unexpected time.

And I would admit that had the Major League Baseball draft not been that long (over 50 rounds(!)) and had it been broadcasted live on the internet, I would have listened to it every year too!