Submitted 17 hours ago by SolidShake@lemmy.world to [deleted]
I live in WI, the draft is in green bay and people are losing their minds. Why? What’s so special about teams picking players? It shouldn’t be this big of a deal lol.
Because sports ball is important to them. Will a good player be on their team? Will they finally drop that player no one likes? What team managed to snag that up and coming player.
All those things are relevant to someone.
To add onto this, you’re also seeing a greater development of the nerd fan, propped up by fantasy football and gambling.
Before, a fan would be interested in their team and maybe a few others. You now have people dedicated to the league, treating it as the RNG running their games. That means knowing all teams, all players, and even how coaching staff will use players as that affects their own games and possibly even their own bottom lines.
So it’s basically a combination of everything that everyone else has said.
As to why all that worked, I like the posts that talk about the optimism and renewal that the draft represents. The NFL is unique in how it handles player development, in that it mostly doesn’t because it has an independently-popular lower league that will do it for free. Since that lower league is effectively the sole source of players, and since the NFL is an American-style sporting cartel, the Draft becomes the single biggest infusion of talent that a team will see in a given year, some of it ready to contribute on the field right away, and the teams that need the talent the most usually have the best picks and therefore a real chance to improve quickly, though the same bad management that gets teams in a bad place will often squander the hope of improvement.
For those follow European football (soccer, not the niche gridiron leagues over there), imagine a single day that combines the anxiety of a promotion playoff final (though with deferred results) with the excitement of the summer transfer window (let’s consider NFL free agency the equivalent of the winter window).
I am an aivd sports fan, and I will never understand the Draft worship. Like it’s important to get good players, sure. But I don’t need so spend a weekend watching about it. It’s just a way for the NFL to make money by selling ads.
It matters to sponsors. Big companies pay money to have their name slapped on everything, and then huge amount of marketing to ensure the max audience size means many more eyes in the sponsors crap. The NFL makes a killing on these sponsored events, so they will drive up the engagement wherever they are. And since sports matter to many Americans, this needs to REALLY SUPER matter.
I agree, who cares about teams picking players except for the players?
Dude, you live in Green Bay. Shouldnt you have been fully indoctrinated in Packers Football by now? I thought they issued everyone a cheesehead hat at birth.
I’m a Minnesota wild fan. Couldn’t care less about football honestly.
So you have an axe to grind because of another sports success?
Or are you here “just asking questions”
The draft is being held in your state this year, it’s the first time as far as I can recall, they want to make a good show of it so it might return some day.
How is it a show? Isn’t it just guys reading names off a sheet of paper?
There’s constant running commentary and speculation, and biographical segments, and sometimes a little drama when surprising things happen, or expected things don’t, and a large group of people simply care enough that they want to know as soon as a pick happens, though how organic that the growth of that group has been is certainly open for debate.
The sheets of paper are getting filled in minutes before they’re announced,
The teams can trade their picks between each other,
It’s not known what teams are going to take what players, if my team (4) thinks team 1 is going to take player A, and team 2 isn’t interested in that player but team 3 is, if team 1 takes player b instead my team might talk with team 2 about trading draft pick positions so we can get that player.
There’s a lot of talking between a lot of professionals representing a lot of teams, the whole situation is very fluid, and it might change the course of your franchise (unless you’re the Jets)
It’s also 3 days of spectacle.
? I don’t understand your thinking:
American Football is the most popular sport in the U.S. -> Higher round picks are better than lower round picks because you have more / inherently better options -> Picks are used as bargaining chips / used in trades -> Watching who your team picks (and how good they are / what position) is extremely entertaining for fans AND can often define your teams future for years afterwards
…obviously?
preview on the teams potential future.
its also like a graduation where theyre celebrating the class who basically worked their ass off for at least half their lives to get to that point.
What else is there for people to do?
Read, learn something new, show empathy to other humans, glance at what politicians are doing (regardless of MAGA)
We don’t have the draft for team sports in the rest of the world and it creates these megateams of galactico superstars. There is also relegation in European football/rugby so teams can push into the upper echelons if they are extremely lucky in terms of getting amazing performances out of nominally mid players.
Its where you get your hot takes and feel included in the sports conversations.
FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org 14 hours ago
As someone who doesn’t give two shits about Football or competition sports, I honestly feel like a fucking alien sometimes. Like I literally couldn’t care less. I’ve tried to care. I just fucking don’t. It’s so hard soemtimes because every male (either ky friends or at work) talks about Sports and I’m just like “yea idk, I didn’t watch the game.” Then they stare at me like I’m a boring sack of shit. It sucks.
spongebue@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Totally with you there (probably a big selection bias on Lemmy, of course). Especially the draft. It’s… Announcements of people getting job offers. Yay?
That said, look up some of Jon Bois’s videos on YouTube if you have some time. I only learned about him because he’s a delight on Bluesky, and he has a kind of interesting/entertaining way to tell stories about sports. At least, the couple videos I just started watching have been!
That said, it may not be the best for current events.
smokingpistol@lemm.ee 13 hours ago
Let me guess you have a vagina?
FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org 13 hours ago
No. Also many women do follow football. I often have this shame even talking to female colleagues or my wife’s friends