Any given Sunday
1By Guest Writer Hamish Girvan:
The term any given Sunday starts here. The annual NFL draft of College players into the pro scene is perhaps Americas biggest example of socialism. Each year the team with the worst record from the season before gets first choice of the crop of 750 players who declare themselves as wanting to have a career in pro football. The hype happens in New York’s Radio City where analysts devour each player picked and who is the next best. To be honest this exercise starts as soon as the season finishes in February with mock drafts appearing on every sports site with analysts and experts predicting who will go where. New York Giants winning the Superbowl last season means they pick last.
It’s like a beauty show without the bikinis whereby athletes are analysed, strengths and weaknesses exposed, and all teams eyes the selection of the next big thing.
This season the prime attraction is two quarterbacks – Andrew Luck (ironic surname) from Stanford, California and Robert Griffin III (RG3) from Baylor, Texas. The NFL has become a quarterback driven league with these guys a lot of the time the difference between winning and losing. This years owner of that coveted pick is the Indianapolis Colts who just let go of their last second pick quarterback, Peyton Manning. Andrew Luck will be the replacement (confirmed by the Colts that this is who they will select with their first pick) and he has big shoes to fill. Luck has been touted as a top pick for the last two years however decided to finish his degree first before going pro (Architecture Major). The Colts see him as a successor to Manning however could not afford both salaries within their salary cap (First picks in the draft get up to a $50M contract)
RG3 is an enigma – unknown at the start of the season outside Baylor University in Waco, Texas he end up winning the coveted Heisman Trophy awarded to the best College Football player in the country. His stock has risen so much that the Washington Redskins traded their number 6 place in draft to number 2 to make sure they get him (Trading spots means a team give up future first round picks and a number of later round picks this year….see below some teams appear twice)
There are 7 rounds of 32 teams meaning 224 players get picked up. The later you go in the draft over three days the less chance you usually chance you have of being a star and the salary decreases.
This years draft order is:
Pick # NFL team
1 Indianapolis Colts
2 Washington Redskins
3 Minnesota Vikings
4 Cleveland Browns
5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
6 St. Louis Rams
7 Jacksonville Jaguars
8 Miami Dolphins
9 Carolina Panthers
10 Buffalo Bills
11 Kansas City Chiefs
12 Seattle Seahawks
13 Arizona Cardinals
14 Dallas Cowboys
15 Philadelphia Eagles
16 New York Jets
17 Cincinnati Bengals
18 San Diego Chargers
19 Chicago Bears
20 Tennessee Titans
21 Cincinnati Bengals
22 Cleveland Browns
23 Detroit Lions
24 Pittsburgh Steelers
25 Denver Broncos
26 Houston Texans
27 New England Patriots
28 Green Bay Packers
29 Baltimore Ravens
30 San Francisco 49ers
31 New England Patriots
32 New York Giants
Last year’s first round draft pick went something like this.
See it all unfold live on ESPN this Friday at 12pm – trainspotting for NFL fans at its best !!