The Shadow-gloom and Weight of the Sacred

The NFL draft is over, but the last week (and, really, the months leading up to the draft) has been an annoyingly overwhelming time for me because the draft highlights what I dislike about sports: its elevated level of importance. I really enjoy sports and I don't mind people who are passionate about their teams. I love the Baltimore Ravens and I paid attention to the players they drafted. I was disappointed that they didn't get Jermaine Gresham in the first round (the Bengals selected him a few spots earlier), but I was really happy that they got Sergio Kindle out of Texas. Incidentally, from this point forward, I will refer to Sergio Kindle as Sergio "the Leone" Kindle.

What I don't like, though, is they the way so many people live through their sports teams. I don't like how so many people refuse to just enjoy a game, enjoy cheering for their team. They make sports into heated policy debates where there are experts, of which they naturally consider themselves, who argue in roundtable discussions over the various merits of potential NFL players.

This was particularly bad this year, or maybe it's just because this is the first year in a long while that I've been in the States during draft season. The discussion surrounding the top 4 quarterback choices (Sam Bradford, Jimmy Clausen, Colt McCoy, Tim Tebow) really got under my skin. Sam Bradford was a tremendous college player, but he had a major shoulder injury and surgery. Plus, so say the pundits, he's not a very good leader, which is necessary at the QB position. Clausen, it was said, was a good choice because he played under Charlie Weis at Notre Dame in a pro-style offense. However, Clausen is rumored to have attitude problems in the vein of one Ryan Leaf. Colt McCoy is too small and, like Bradford and Tebow, he played in a spread offense. Tebow, the most scrutinized of the four, has great intangibles, but his throwing motion and footwork could not possibly work in the NFL. So, the question emerges, of these quarterbacks, who is the most NFL-ready?

Admittedly, I am no football expert, but that's primarily due to my slow-working brain, not lack of effort. I will, nonetheless, offer my own opinion on the matter. No college QB in the history of college football has ever been "ready" for the NFL The quality of talent at that level is so competitive and excellent that comparing a QB's playing style, offensive schemes, throwing motion from college and attempting to apply it to an NFL situation is fruitless. These criteria may offer great clues as to how one will play in the NFL, but I think it's a vast stretch of the imaginiation to say that Colt McCoy (6'1"; 216) is too small (Steve Young: 6'2"; 215). Or, that Jimmy Clausen is too much of a diva to play in the NFL (I do really have to make a list of diva QBs? John Elway, Drew Bledsoe, Brett Favre have all had tremendous careers). And, so on.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the draft and that you're as excited as I am to see how these new NFL players play in the upcoming season--of course, it's a foregone conclusion that Sam Bradford will dominate. But, for everyone else, it's up in the air.