For many NFL fans, their seasons end after the last week of the regular season. Only 14 teams make the playoffs, and the other 18 fanbases are left to look forward to next season. As a Giants and a former Houston Texans fan, I’m usually part of the latter group. I still watch the playoffs because I’m a football fan, but I look forward to the day after the Super Bowl more than the game itself. This is the start of draft season, a time of excitement, intrigue, and the most intoxicating drug of all, hope.
The Super Bowl is great, or at least it should be. However, whether it’s a lack of amazing games in the past decade (with a few exceptions), the commercials falling off, or the fact that I, like most other fans, don’t have a horse in the race, the Super Bowl has lost some luster for me. For the two fanbases in the game, it’s amazing, watching your team play for and win the Super Bowl is an awesome feeling, but that’s only for those two teams.
The NFL Draft is so great because it offers excitement for every team. Every team has an opportunity to improve, whether it’s by drafting players or trading their picks. For the bottom dwellers of the league, it brings the hope that next year will be different. For the teams that barely missed the playoffs, it offers an opportunity to find those missing pieces to get them over the hump. The contenders can find the players that can bring them to the Super Bowl, and the reigning champs can look to add more firepower to defend their crown.
In the NFL, one player can’t change a bad team into a championship contender. There are no LeBron James type homerun prospects that instantly change a whole organization, but there are opportunities to build a foundation with great players that don’t have to be picked at number 1 overall. Everyone is searching for that next steal, the next Stefon Diggs, the next Russell Wilson, and of course, the next Tom Brady.
The league has also done a much better job of marketing college players and the activities leading up to the draft than the MLB or the NBA. The combine is a huge spectacle that builds the hype around players and adds to fans’ excitement about having new players on their favorite teams. Every year prospects dazzle with their 40 times, bench press, and vertical leaps. After D.K. Metcalf fell late into the second round, it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the prospects who test freakishly well, and this year’s class has some of the freakiest athletes ever.
The Super Bowl is still exciting, it’s still the end goal for every NFL team and fanbase. However, as is the case with many things, the journey is often more exciting than the destination, especially when you aren’t guaranteed to get there. Every draft brings the hopes of new beginnings and new opportunities, and this year is no different. Do you agree that the draft is more exciting than the Super Bowl? What do you hope your team does in this year’s draft? Let us know your favorite draft moments, steals, busts, and more down in the comments!
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Interesting take. I think you made some really good points, but for fans like me, it’s always nice to watch the patriots win 😉