NFL Announces what Players will Attend the Draft

We all felt it. Even the Notre Dame haters couldn't help but feel sorry for Quarterback Brady Quinn as he sat at Radio City Music Hall in 2007 and wasn't drafted by any of the teams. The cameras kept panning in to see his face with each team that rejected the kid. For the first four hours, it was quite an oddity. But after the fourth hour, it was a little like watching a puppy drown a slow horrible death or like watching your neighbor beat his wife. As the drama played out, it was almost as if the ESPN crew was enjoying themselves with their new found plot twist, reality TV in real time. The NFL Commissioner finally had enough (ratings were in the bag) and he moved Quinn to his own personal viewing room and refused to let the cameras in.

When Quinn was eventually drafted by the Cleveland Browns with the twenty second pick, he almost looked like he had just been released from a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp. He looked dazed, confused and uncertain about just about everything in his life at that point. They were able to take a guy who was way way up on a pedestal ( Notre Dame QB, First Round NFL Draft pick, Played for Charlie Weiss) and smash his ego and his self esteem all in front of a global audience through the magic of television.

Interviewed immediately after the carnage was over, Quinn had this to say:
Question: You're sitting in the greenroom waiting to be drafted. How do you try to avoid looking dazed and bored when you're just sitting there knowing that the cameras are rolling on you live?

Quinn: It's tough. You obviously have to keep the conversation going because there's really not a lot going on back there, which is one of the toughest things. To sit back there and have the camera be on you when the team isn't going to take a QB. Why would a camera be on you? What's going to happen here? Some of the way that it was filmed didn't really make sense. The way it's presented doesn't make sense.

You have to make sure you realize that the overall outcome of the draft is going to be a positive one. You're getting an opportunity to go play in a sport that you love to play for a career. You have to be excited about it!

Question: What did you do to try to keep busy?

Quinn: We just talked about things like scenarios. It was an eventful draft so seeing how the picks worked out and talking to everyone was fun.

Question: Your girlfriend and mom were on opposite sides of you in the greenroom. Who comforted whom?

Quinn: It was more me comforting them. I came into the situation realizing that it was definitely a possibility that the draft could go how it did based on what's transpired in the past. Quarterback is a position where if you don't need it, you aren't going to take one. You don't waste your first-round pick on a QB unless you feel you need him. Fortunately, Cleveland was able to get a LT and a QB in the first round.

Question: The highlight of your week had to be seeing Serena Williams at the ESPN NFL Draft Party on Friday night.

Quinn: That was fun …

Question: She's really muscular!

Quinn: She is …

Well, apparently the NFL Brass felt that the Brady Quinn emasculation made for good quality family entertainment. They must have asked the marketing department some sure fire way to ensure that some type of debacle happened again. They did not dissappoint.

Fox Sports announced today

Nine of the top prospects are heading to New York City for the April 25 selection process, a source told FOXSports.com. The list includes three tackles (Baylor's Jason Smith, Virginia's Eugene Monroe and Mississippi's Michael Oher), two quarterbacks (Georgia's Matthew Stafford and Kansas State's Josh Freeman), two linebackers (Wake Forest's Aaron Curry and Southern Cal's Brian Cushing), Texas Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree and Texas defensive end Brian Orakpo.

The nine players invited marks the NFL's highest total since the 1996 draft. The names will be officially announced Monday.

The expanded field will bring more star power to Draft Central at Radio City Music Hall. It also may provide a more compelling telecast if one of the invitees slides into the later part of the first round a la quarterbacks Brady Quinn and Aaron Rodgers in recent years.

Out of that list, Smith, Monroe, Stafford, Crabtree and Curry can keep the car running as they run inside Radio City, become millionaires, and then leave the place and go start spending their cheddar.

"Okay, I got time for a quick picture, then I gotta leave, I got Russian triplet hookers waiting for me at the Plaza"

Orakpo will be gone by the tenth pick. What I can't understand is why they invited three guys that might not even go in the first fifteen picks. The knock on Freeman is that he makes bad decisions, the knock on Oher is that he might not be able to understand an NFL playbook and the knock on Cushing is that he might be the third linebacker to be drafted from hi school.

I do not understand inviting these guys down, but leaving out Mark Sanchez and Andre Smith. So congratulations Josh Freeman, you're this years winner of the Brady Quinn Award for being embarrased on national television by the most powerful sports organization in the world.