I’m listening to sports radio today, as I usually do, because I have an addiction problem. Today, I will hear sports commentators and fans ramble on for hours about tonight’s National Football League (NFL) draft as if it’s the greatest thing since pizza (I dislike white bread), but I won’t hear one second of conversation from anyone questioning whether there should be an NFL draft.
Here are 12 of my random thoughts on sports drafts:
1. THEY REWARD LOSERS: The most important reason, among many, that drafts should be abolished is that they encourage losing. Rewarding teams for losing by letting them select better amateur players makes sports leagues the most socialist institutions in the USA if you accept the conservatives’ premise that redistributing assets from the strongest to the weakest is socialism. Yet, conservatives -- and most other people -- unquestioningly accept the draft.
2. I SUPPORT FREE AGENCY: Allowing strong teams to become stronger is bad for competitive balance so I don’t advocate unlimited free agency for rookies. I advocate panels of experts ranking players and rules preventing the teams with let’s say the 10 best records from signing any top 10 players. I also back rules preventing teams from signing too many highly-ranked players, but otherwise I favor restricted free agency.
3. HOOPS STARS JUDGED UNFAIRLY: Why do fans and commentators frequently rip players who leave college early to play in the NBA and are drafted in the first round but not among the top five or 10? The criticism of these players as losers and dummies -- even when they’re guaranteed to earn millions of dollars -- is completely unwarranted.
4. FANS LOVE THE WHITE GUYS: Why do the same people praise young men who are drafted by baseball and hockey teams as the epitome of what makes the USA great even if they’re drafted in the 47th round and earn $500 per month? Hmmmmm. It can’t be racism because the U.S. Supreme Court said anti-black racism doesn’t exist.
5. INDIVIDUAL DECISIONMAKING IMPORTANT: Students who want to play pro sports and not go to school should play pro sports. Students who want to stay in school and not play pro sports ASAP should stay in school and not play pro sports ASAP.
6. STOP PRESSURING COLLEGIANS: Adults who pressure young men to turn pro by arguing that money is everything aren’t mature human beings. Adults who pressure young men by arguing that playing another year in college will improve their draft status are selfish college sports fans. Why should a young man give up a year’s worth of money for the honor of being drafted higher (and thus recoup a small part of that lost money)?
7. YOUNGER PLAYERS FAVORED: There are innumerable stories of players losing a lot of money because they delayed going pro for a year or more. In fact, pro teams regularly favor younger players over older players. For decades, baseball teams have favored high school stars over college stars. Injuries can also harm prospective professionals. Here is a story about Mitch McGary (pictured above) that says the University of Michigan basketball star lost about $11 million by not turning pro in 2013, partly because he hurt his back last season.
8. ARE THERE CLASSES TODAY?: The NCAA doesn’t give a d____ about education. It has all sorts of petty rules that prevent athletes from working in the school library and elsewhere and restrict what kind of free food they can accept. Yet, the NCAA allows athletes to travel all over the USA in the middle of the semester for tryouts with pro football teams when they should be catching up on their schoolwork (if they’re really students).
9. NCAA RULES BENEFIT THE NCAA: The NCAA also doesn’t give a d___ about college athletes period. If it did, it would allow underclassmen who made themselves eligible for the draft, but didn’t play a professional game (whether they were drafted or undrafted) to play college ball again. The NCAA, though, would rather punish athletes for making decisions it disagrees with -- and lecture them that their lives will be ruined if they consider turning pro before their four years of eligibility are up (which isn’t the same as graduating).
10. SUMMER DRAFTS PREFERABLE: The NFL doesn’t give a d____ about education either. The next season doesn’t start until September. Why can’t the NFL hold its workouts and draft in June after most schools’ semesters end?
11. SPORTS DOESN’T REQUIRE MATURITY: The “maturity” argument -- younger players are too immature to turn pro -- is complete nonsense. The list of young men who turned pro after high school who were very mature (such as Derek Jeter) is very long. The list of men who turned pro after college and were very immature (such as Dennis Rodman) is also very long. The skills argument is also nonsense. In the story about Mitch McGary, USA Today sportswriter Dan Shanoff poked fun at the notion that “a college coaching staff is better at NBA player development than an NBA coaching staff.”
12. IT’S REALLY BORING: The NFL draft is really……………………………......................boring. You need a life if you pay attention to it player by player as it’s occurring. I might need a life.
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