WQOW Sports Blog

Wake Me Up When the NFL Draft Is Over

Let me state for the record that I like football.   While I prefer the atmosphere of a college game day to any pro stadium not named Lambeau Field, I do enjoy watching and following the NFL as much, if not more, than the average fan.   But my enjoyment comes from watching GAMES...actual competition between two teams, not the "competition" between NFL GM's sitting in "war rooms," and certainly not the "competition" between talking heads or writers spouting opinions about what grade each team gets for its draft.

Drama is Eli Manning somehow evading the Patriots pass rush to chuck the football downfield in the general direction of a little-known player named David Tyree--who just happens, in traffic, to catch the ball by pinning it to his helmet, keeping a potential go-ahead drive alive late in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl.   Drama is not, as the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network would like you to believe, what follows if Darren McFadden were to slide out of the top five overall picks.   

Yes, the Super Bowl is THE most over-hyped sporting event...but at least there's a game at the end of the week.   The NFL Draft is THE most over-hyped sporting non-event.   At the end of a Super Bowl, the predictions made by the aforementioned talking heads or writers are largely forgotten, replaced by by what actually happened in the game, moments that will remain in our memory for decades.  What happens at the end of the draft?   More opinions...more words...more people claiming they, and only they, have the ability to predict the future.   Five years from now, who will remember what player wore what awful-looking pastel-colored suit while standing uncomfortably next to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell?  I'm still waiting for those good grades given to the Detroit Lions brain trust in recent years to translate into actual wins and playoff appearances.   As fans of the Pack, do we want good draft grades, or regular season wins?  Trust me, the 3-hour, one-way drive between Eau Claire and Green Bay is more than enough time to obsess over the state of the Packers franchise...I see no need to start that process in late April.

The NFL Draft is a lot like another TV creation, American Idol--sure, a lot of people pay attention at the moment, but while Ruben Studdard may have gotten way more than his alotted five minutes of fame, there's no way he's going to the Rock & Roll Music Hall Of Fame.   

I'll pay casual attention to the NFL Draft, but I won't be riveted by it.  My approach is much like it is for the Academy Awards--if I'm around and a TV is on, I'll take a glance--but generally, I'll wait until it's over, then log onto a computer and look at the list of picks and read a few stories.  When I do watch, it's only for about 5-10 minutes at a time...occasionally, I'll react.  For instance, the 2007 NFL Draft, my reaction was as follows: "Justin Harrell?  What?  What are they thinking by taking a d-lineman in the 1st round?"  I then shared that opinion by sending a text message to former co-worker David Kmiecik (who loves the NFL & NBA drafts, by the way, and spends an inordinate amount of time preparing for each non-event).  After that, I grabbed a beverage, and walked back down to the lake to enjoy a fantastic spring day--outdoors, far away from the bombastic proclamations of Mel Kiper, Jr.

The NFL may be known as the No Fun League, but it's an organization that knows the benefits of marketing. With the draft, OTA's, minicamps, and training camps, the NFL has managed to keep itself in the limelight for nearly 12 solid months each year.   The league certainly has enablers in the media...the website of the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network devotes as much (if not more) space to previewing the NFL Draft as it does covering actual playoff games in the NBA & NHL.  Could it be because the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network owns the rights to broadcast the drama that is the NFL Draft?   

I've tried to avoid most of the pre-draft hype, but sometimes you simply can't...especially if, within your line of sight, there's a television tuned to one of the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network stations.  A few days ago, Mel Kiper, Jr. was on the "Budweiser Hotseat" (more cross-promotion gone mad), wearing a dark suit, dark shirt, and dark tie.  With the mood lighting casting shadows on his face while darkening the tint on his presciption glasses, along with the faux flames around him, it looked like Beelzelbub was broadcasting from a set somewhere in Hades.

Maybe that's where we're all headed...

-BOB BRADOVICH

   

Perspective, please...

Eight days ago, I gazed out the window of a downtown Detroit hotel and pondered the possibilities of Wisconsin making it to both a Final Four and a Frozen Four.  Neither had seemed likely during much of the season, but on that sunny afternoon, it was easy to dream.  Each team had to win just two more games for it to become reality.

That evening, when Davidson's Stephen Curry hit a ridiculous reverse layup against the Badgers which  impressed even LeBron James (who was sitting several rows behind us--probably one of the few times in my life that I'll have better seats at an event than LeBron)...it hit me.  The Badgers were not Final Four material. They were a good team, one that certainly exceeded preseason expectations, but they lacked the NBA-quality talent of the teams that wound up advancing to this year's Final Four.

Is this a problem?  Should fans be badgering (sorry) Bo Ryan to recruit better talent to Madison?   Has the UW not set its sights high enough when it comes to the major, revenue-producing sports?

I don't have the answers...but now that my disappointment has faded, I'll ask any Badger fan who's still bitter to keep a sense of perspective.   During my years in Madison, Michael Finley was a true talent, but overall, the UW teams of 91-92 and 92-93 were barely NIT-caliber.   Things got better over time, but it wasn't until Dick Bennett took over that there was stability in the coaching staff--it's no coincidence that the program became a conference contender in his tenure.  Sure, Stu Jackson got Wisconsin into the NCAA tournament, but he was a short-term fix.   Say what you want about Dick's style of play, the guy won games.    Now, that pattern continues with Bo Ryan, albeit with a slightly more up-tempo style and more displays of athleticism.   You can complain about the Big Ten being down in recent years, but Bo gets it done, even in seasons like this past one, when teams like Indiana and Michigan State were supposed to be the conference powers.   

Detractors like to harp on Bo's NCAA record with the Badgers, but again, I don't have any major beef with what Wisconsin has done in the postseason.   Tournament success depends on a lot of random factors (your draw, injuries, etc.), but I can't say bad coaching has been a factor in the Badgers losses these past two seasons--simply put, Wisconsin was unfortunate to run into a couple of hot-shooting teams.    True, I would have liked to see the Badgers play a box-and-one or a triangle-and-two defense against Curry, but Bo is a man-to-man guy, so he goes with what got him there.   

Maybe Wisconsin's not at the level of North Carolina or Kansas, but then again, the UW has long since passed former Big Ten powers like Minnesota, Iowa, and Michigan.   Recently, you'd give the Badgers the edge over both Indiana and Michigan State.    I'm willing to let Bo coach out the rest of his tenure, and I'm pretty confident that the level of this program will at worst, stay where it is. I am, however, a little concerned about what John Belein and Tubby Smith might be able to do at Michigan and Minnesota, respectively.

Regarding hockey, it would have been easier to accept the season being over if Wisconsin hadn't completely outplayed North Dakota for two periods on the Badgers home ice in the NCAA Midwest Regional final.  Unfortunately for the UW, a 47-second stretch of the third allowed the Fighting Sioux to get back into the game.   Getting that close to a Frozen Four had to really sting, even for a team that had such a small window to just get into the NCAA tournament. 

What the future holds for the hockey program is a little less clear.  Mike Eaves has a very good understanding of how to prepare his players for pro hockey, but that may be an issue for his own program, with early defections of players like Kyle Turris for the NHL.   Still, only two years removed from a national championship, the hockey program continues to be one of the consistently strongest at the University of Wisconsin.

If you're still a bitter Badger fan, take a look back in time to the pre-Donna Shalala, Pat Richter, and Barry Alvarez era...overall, things look a whole lot better these days.

-BOB BRADOVICH