NFL Draft This Weekend

As most of you know, I'm a giant NFL fan. So much so, that I actually watch the first round of the NFL Draft in late April. The NFL's popularity has reached the point where the draft outdraws baseball regular season and basketball & hockey playoff games that compete against it in terms of TV viewers. Even I think that's sad, but it shows the NFL's dominance as the major sports league in North America now.
I don't have a favourite team but because I live close to Detroit, I always hope they'll do reasonably well. Obviously, 0-16 doesn't cut it and you have to feel for Lions fans. I really hope they don't take Matthews Stafford, the QB from Georgia #1 overall. There are 2 excellent left tackles sitting there, plus a solid LB that they could use. Their coach is from a system that likes to build from the lines out, so taking a LT, like Miami did last year, makes sense. Then again, who says teams follow common sense?
The thing doesn't start until 4:00 now, so they're obviously trying to let their fans get shopping, etc. done first, much like what they've done with moving playoff games on Saturdays so they start @ 4:30.
Do you watch any of the draft or is that too much for you?

How Smart is The Bellicheck Coaching Tree??

A few years ago, Bill Bellicheck was hailed as this amazing coach, winning numerous Super Bowls, etc. Several of his assistants; Charlie Weiss, Romeo Crennell, Eric Mangini and recently Josh McDaniels, all got head coaching jobs off the Patriots' success. Now, it's not so clear if it was the "system" or the coach. McDaniels, the new Denver coach, wanted a New England guy; Matt Cassell to be the Denver QB and it leaked before they got the deal done. Ex-New England personnel guru Scott Pioli got the deal done first & Cassell is KC's starting QB. McDaniels now looks like an ass in his QB's mind and is in the middle of a messy divorce with his former starting QB over it. Now, Cutler needs to grow a pair and realize that everyone is expendable on any team but it's hardly the great start McDaniels would want. Romeo Crennell got fired in Cleveland and the Browns are systematically undoing all the draft picks, etc. of his time. He got replaced by Mangini, who had been fired last year after the Brett Favre fiasco. Mangini is hardly the "Manginius" that appeared in a cameo on the Soppranos a few years ago. Weiss is on thin ice @ Notre Dame. There were rumours of him being replaced with Jon Gruden but I assume the Golden Dome couldn't have stood that much taking the Lord's name in vain if "Chucky" had been hired. Bellicheck now doesn't have Pioli either and we'll see how well he does. Success, like fame, is fleeting it appears.