The NFL Draft Is Kinda Of A Big Deal Now
It's already happening now, but from now until the first round happens on April 28th in Las Vegas, the talk about the actual NFL Selection Meeting (the technical term for the NFL Draft) will ramp up even more.
The Draft has made a celebrity out of Mel Kiper, Jr. & Todd McShay. They're the longtime NFL Draft analysts for ESPN. The Draft has become so big now that NFL cities actually bid to host the event and boo NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell out of the building (which is becoming a yearly tradition). Goodell (pictured above) doesn't seem to mind it, either.
As mentioned before, this year's Draft is in Las Vegas, Nevada. And talk is getting louder as to who the Jacksonville Jaguars will pick at number 1 (they had the first pick last year and took Clemson's Trevor Lawrence). Your gridiron heroes, the Detroit Lions. pick second and I think they should go with defense or trade down for more picks.
What is so surprising is that how well attended the event is now. When it was in New York City every year, you had thousands of fans on scene booing and/or cheering each pick in the first round (it doesn't even matter which team is drafting, the NFL is national). This is for the NFL Draft!! Not even a preseason game!
And since the league decided to have "host cities" for the Draft, It's become an even bigger deal. Thousands of people attend and has contributed positively to the local economies of the host cities.
Detroit will host the Draft in 2024, and what a site that's going to be! Hundreds of thousands of people will crowd into downtown Detroit for all of the surrounding festivities.
The popularity of the NFL in America knows no bounds. It is our National Pastime now. It passed baseball for that honor more than a generation ago. And that's because the NFL knows how to market and promote itself and baseball still doesn't know how to do it.
The Draft is as big now as the NBA Playoffs (which occur at the same time). And at least in America, it's more popular than the NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs. That's something that was unthinkable 30 years ago.
Will you be watching? Yeah, you will.