04-24-2021, 11:07 AM
(04-23-2021, 08:04 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: Anybody like me who really misses the way the draft used to be?
You had just the two days. You had your local newspaper to kind of follow along leading up the draft. And you had a few SportCenter segments with Mel talking about it. And as far as "tape" or highlights, those you saw when the player was picked or if you watched them play on Saturdays.
You could settle in on Saturday and watch it all day long. Even if you went into with some knowledge and opinions, there were going to be a lot of guys you hadn't see play or heard of before.
Now it's different. It's still a big event, and I still watch it, but the magic seems to be a little bit gone. I will say that's just my own opinion and it's based on a lot of reasons.
The biggest reason I used to enjoy it more is nowadays I'm sick of hearing about the draft before it even starts. The amount of coverage leading up to it is just on a whole other level. Between the 8 million segments on ESPN from every show talking about it, the youtube clips from guys like Pat McAfee, the message boards, Twitter there's just so much to consume. Everyone's got an opinon and a take. It's an overload of draft information.
Now I get that there's a lot of positives to what I just listed out too. A younger person might read this and think I'm nuts. It's nice to be able to pull whatever clip you wanna watch or discuss the players with others. I get that. But I think you kind of have to be older to understand what it is I'm talking about.
To be honest, I'm just anxious to get the draft over with. I'm so sick of reading and talking about it. And I realize I'm partially to blame for this. I'm the one who chooses to read and watch what I do. But it's almost inescapable now. Everywhere I look there's draft coverage.
I'll leave you with this, the amount of time we all (myself definitely included) have spent talking about these drafts over the years is pretty amazing. But looking back, a lot of the conversation seems silly. All the time spent on the Laquan Treadwells and Marcus Lattimore's, all the mocks, all of the arguments... the fact is we just don't know until we let these kids careers start to play out. I just kind miss the old days where you tuned in without already being completely burned out and having an opinon on every single player, round and approach.
I know this is an old man yells out clouds post. I just have to vent. Every time I open the Enquirer, or got to Lance or Mo's twitter, or open these board, or go to ESPN I see the same shit over, and over and over. It's exhausting.
There's a simple solution to your problem. Quit watching YouTube draft videos. When they start talking about the draft on ESPN, change the channel. Quit clicking on draft threads here. Quit clicking on draft threads on other websites. It's not escapable, it's not like they hide the articles under false headlines to trap you, it's very easy to escape it. I had to actually look up when the draft was the other day. I watched videos on a couple of players, and that was it. So knowing how some others may want 24 hour coverage, instead of wishing they didn't have it, I just monitor my own behavior and don't turn it on.