I Might Be the Only Football Fan on the Planet Who isn’t Bothered By the NFL Draft Being Moved Back 2 Weeks

So, the 2014 NFL Draft has been moved back 2 weeks later than normal due to some sort of scheduling conflict with Radio City Music Hall in NYC. If you spend much time reading about the NFL Draft on the Internet or on Twitter, you might come away with the idea that this change is one of the great injustices in World History.

I love the NFL Draft. I watch every year and typically watch the entire 7 rounds. I usually spend some time reading scouting reports on players, listen to some NFL Draft podcasts, and maybe watch a few of the Gruden QB Camp shows. However, I typically don’t read mock drafts because they are only slightly less pointless than post-draft “grades” articles, which I think are the most pointless of the annual sports media topics.

Recently, ProFootballTalk.com ran a poll asking readers what they thought of the NFL Draft being moved back 2 weeks. Over 96% responded that they liked it the last week in April rather than the second week of May. One commenter from that post seemingly took my thoughts on that poll right out of my brain… To paraphrase: “It’s like asking a kid if he wants to open his birthday presents now or wait until his birthday.” Of course, virtually every kid will say they want it now if given the choice.

Frankly, I see the uproar as being at least partly media driven.  I can understand that the sports media gets fatigued by an extended build up to the draft because they are tasked with crafting even more pointless mock drafts than they might have written in previous years.  What I don’t get is why the rest of the fan base is up in arms over this change. Whether you do it now or in two weeks doesn’t matter. NFL news pretty much goes dark for the next two months with the exception of a few mini-camps. Really the difference is if you have the draft two weeks earlier, you extend that pre-training camp NFL News “dark period” for two weeks.

Whether the NFL Draft is held in April, May, or June doesn’t matter to me one bit. Just let me know when it’s scheduled and I’ll tune in for all seven rounds.