Legal Commentary

Tim Tebow's Draft Day

By Big Tent Democrat

[NOTE: Yes this should be at Sports Left, but I have to relaunch it and this is on my mind now.]

The NFL Draft is tomorrow night. Or rather the First Round of the NFL Draft is tomorrow. I'm a sports nut so I watch the NFL draft but honestly, it is amazing that it is being turned into some type of must see event. Watching a bunch of middle aged guys put baseball caps on huge guys in suits can not be compelling television to any normal human being.

The most bizarre part is that one of the biggest stories of this draft is Tim Tebow and whether he will be drafted in the First Round This is a big deal because . . . well, I am not sure why it is a big deal, but whether Tebow will go to the draft tomorrow night is a big story now. (Turns out Tebow said no.) As regular readers know, I live and die with the Gators, but the Gators aren't playing tomorrow night. Other Gator fans see it differently:

Tebow is not drafted in the first round: In terms of his career, this is really no big deal. But this would suck and suck hard. It's one thing for Pillow Soft McCoy to drop into round two, but not Tebow. Every Gator fan wants Tebow drafted in the first round because it will be seen as validating how good Tebow and the Gators are. Also, I'd rather go out for drinks Friday night than live blog the draft. (Hell yes, we're live blogging the first round.) This is almost as bad as Tebow being picked by someone who wants to make him a fullback or tight end.

(Emphasis supplied.) Validate wha? The Gators being "good" is validated during the college football season, not during the NFL Draft. And it certainly is not validated by where Tim Tebow is picked. I happen to think Tebow was a great great college football player and has no chance of being a good QB in the NFL. He just does not have the arm, the motion or the accuracy.But that is not a knock on his greatness as a college football player. It just is a different set of skills.

Anyway, there is no way Tebow should go to the draft. To sit there for hours in the Green Room having people talk crap about him? And then probably not being drafted in the First Round? That would be nuts.

But the NFL really really wants him to be there. It's the one "compelling" story of the event for non-football junkies (if anything is compelling about the draft.)

I wonder if to make it happen, the NFL will privately tell him (Jacksonville is rumored to want him, but not at 10, so they would have to trade down. Also the Vikes at 30 are supposed to be interested) that he is going to be picked in the First Round. Sounds crazy, but the NFL Draft as prime time TV sounds crazy to me.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 21, 2010 (boomark / email).