2009 NFL Draft: That'll Knock The Commish Down A Few Pegs
by August West on Apr 15, 2009 10:28 AM CDT
in NFL Draft
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The Chargers are doing something that's never been attempted before with this year's NFL Draft: their picks will be announced on Chargers.com before commissioner Roger Goodell announces them at the podium and ESPN acts like it's their story to break. As crazy as that sounds on first hearing it, I have to say I'd eat this up if the Titans followed suit. Hardcore fans dedicate a lot of time to getting ready for the draft, and the satisfaction of knowing the pick before everyone else would be a nice, free reward.
Of course I'm sure the NFL front offices are already trying to co-opt this into their coverage so they can either lord it over the cable companies or charge fans extra for it. What do you folks think of this? Let us know in the poll and the comments below!
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any explanations for the 'nope' votes?
I’m curious…
Music City Miracles blogger and official Jon Bovi tour manager.
Sure...
Its ridiculous that there will be Loser/Charger fans knowing who the Chargers picked before we will… I, as I’m sure a lot of people watch it on T.V. every yr. Its like Christmas to me… Call me a creature of habit, call me whatever. I just think this is just the way it was meant to be. I like it as is way to much too change it. Next thing you know teams will just be drafting online like its a fantasy league…
by Big Bad Bulluck on Apr 15, 2009 7:33 PM CDT up reply actions
I don't agree that they should display their pick before it is read by the commisioner
That is a tradition that should just be respected, it is much more suspenseful and fun to hear someone dramatically read you the name than it is for a name to just pop up on your computer. If fans can’t wait the extra one or two minutes or want to “put one over the commissioner” maybe they should learn that patience is a virtue and freakin chill out.
With that said there’s really nothing wrong with putting the pick up on a website beforehand, but even if the Titans do that I personally won’t be one of the people hitting the refresh button every five seconds and ruining an amazing tradition. I’m old school baby!
Cortland Finnegan is a beast
by Titansfan_559 on Apr 15, 2009 10:24 PM CDT up reply actions
I voted Nope for only one reason...
it would kill draft parties. A bunch of my friends from work usually gets together to watch day one of the Draft and we all route for different teams. Maybe it wouldn’t really kill the parties but I tell you heading into the draft is a high activity time for us. We do mock draft analysis during our lunch breaks, etc. and three of us play in the same fantasy league every year so draft day is big for us. I like the suspense of everyone sitting there together waiting for the announcement so we can rag on each other or talk about how it’s a shame a good player went to a bad team.
Case in point, last year everyone ribbed me hard because of the CJ pick. It was “Titans skipped out on receivers again…guess they want to suck” comments all day. Of course they ate their words after that and I am looking forward to the draft this year so I can remind them of that.
I don't think it is gonna be that much in advance
How can they know who they are gonna pick before they go on the clock? I’m thinking they make the pick, the guy with the computer at the desk enters it into the website while the card is going up to the Commissioner. So what are we talking, 2 minutes?
I voted yup, but I am really lukewarm on the whole thing. I kind of like the build-up, so I wouldn’t look at the website anyway.
Official MCM Hater!
However,...
i do like the text message alert system..id like that
_The Time to Hesitate is Through_-J.Morrison
A BETTER IDEA
What if we just took the decision away from the coaches and let the fans do a live vote or poll?
Surely the fans could do a better job of picking WR’s than the Titans
by pigskinpundits.com on Apr 15, 2009 2:15 PM CDT reply actions
Why would I want to be the first to know that the Titans picked Chris Henry?
That would mean I would punch my computer instead of throwing empty beer cans at my television. I would rather keep my computer and let the television take the brunt of the punishment
by pigskinpundits.com on Apr 15, 2009 2:16 PM CDT reply actions
I think it would have been a much better situation if the commissioner had gotten up there and said this
“the Tennessee Titans are electing to not reveal their second round pick as they are aware that it is an absolute ridiculous choice that will never amount to even a good practice squad player and they are afraid of the ridicule they will receive. The challenge for you the fan will be to watch training camp this season and try to guess which player is the second round pick and which one is the undrafted free agent from Brevard College. Good Luck.”
That would have at least made a contest out of it.
Official MCM Hater!
Gramsey
Once again, you amaze me! Simply hilarious!
by pigskinpundits.com on Apr 15, 2009 4:00 PM CDT up reply actions
The only real issue is advertising revenue, and from that standpoint...
…this decision is all positive. If ESPN thought that there were people would actually tune away from their coverage to Chargers.com because ESPN was fast enough, then that would hurt their advertising revenues, and I could see a protest.
However, the vastly more likely impact is that most really, really hard-core Chargers fans will already be watching the draft, but they’ll visit Chargers.com every 10 seconds once the Chargers go on the clock. Clearly, this will increase the Chargers’ online revenues for that day, though probably only a little. Still, why throw away money? It’s a smart deal for the Chargers, and I predict that EVERY team will follow suit once they see that it’s a profit-driver, however small.
DannoE
"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."
Good point.
Moving the medium to phones, computers has already happened. This is just a reflection of the times we live in
by pigskinpundits.com on Apr 15, 2009 4:02 PM CDT up reply actions
I like the idea
MaPatsFan had a nice post over on PatsPulpit describing the rise of blogging and “new wave media” (my term) over traditional media. ESPN is one of those traditional media outlets… not in need of dethroning mind you, but hey let’s get the info out there a big quicker. Anything less could be argued to be censorship.
Bah!
ESPN definitely needs the competition of online media. Imagine how much harder it would be to evaluate the crap that ESPN occasionally puts out without the additional input of FootballOustiders.com. ESPN has a marked (bad) tendency to repeat itself endlessly. I can only imagine that it would be worse without competing media outlets.
Granted, it’s not so bad for football, but if you follow a sport like triathlon, you get maybe two televised events per year. And then, if you had to rely on the TV people for 100% of your information, you’d REALLY be screwed.
For example: NBC broadcast the Ironman 70.3 championships over the weekend and REPEATEDLY said that, “seconds count” in the transitions. But the race was well over 4 hours long. The winner won by about a minute and a half, and the 3rd place finisher was several minutes behind 2nd. So… seconds DIDN’T count in the transition. Not at all. Which you’d know if you’ve ever done a tri or follow the sport online or something. But if all you had was TV…
DannoE
"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."
PLUS
If we didn’t have ESPN, then we would never know Who Is More NOW!!!!
And the 1997 Heisman trophy would be where it rightly belongs, but I digress………..
Official MCM Hater!
Digress
please digress…I couln’t agree more. I blame ESPN for that debacle. (moan)
Well, gramsey712, at least we can agree on one thing.
"I throw, you catch. It's NOT that hard!"
Peyton Manning, SNL, 2007
by peytonsthebest on Apr 16, 2009 3:50 PM CDT up reply actions
ESPN DIDN'T GIVE UP 63 POINTS AT FLORIDA!!
last one… i respect how much that sucked for UT fans. I’d kill to have a Vandy player in the Heisman hunt.
Music City Miracles blogger and official Jon Bovi tour manager.
i think we need to keep it the way it is.
we need to be pissed off at the same time. its kinda like somebody at the game watching lendale fumble on the winning drive against the browns and comes in here during our open thread and tells us before it happens on the tv. that would suck.
if it aint broke dont fix it.
nuff said
Hey, when you have the stereo and TV on, how do you change the volume on the stereo?
"If you have the stereo on..." Why do you have the stereo on while you're watching TV?
'Cause I like to party.
Without a frame of reference, there's no comparison. So, right now we don't know if it's broke or not.
DannoE
"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."
If you don't know if something is broke...
then chances are it isn’t. If something isn’t fulfilling the need for which it is intended then fix it. If there is something than can be done to improve it, then by all means improve it. But one team deciding to do something like this is neither improving upon the old system or fixing something wrong with it.
When they cut the time between picks down, that was an improvement for everyone. What the Chargers are trying to do now doesn’t really hurt anything I guess… but it really isn’t helping anything either. The more I read everyone else’s opinions and views on this the more I begin to think it is just a grab for attention and publicity. It seems to be doing the job quite well.
You don't think that's a laudible goal in it's own right?
DannoE
"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."
I think...
That any team has any right to release who they are going to pick whenever they want. If, say, the Lions said today “We are picking Matt Stafford and that’s it,” would that be any different than the Chargers releasing their pick 2 minutes before it’s put on television? It’s not like there is an integrity issue or anything. It’s the damn draft. For the Chargers, I think it’s really smart marketing. It makes Chargers fans feel connected to the team, that the Chargers care about them, and in terms of overhead cost and effort to do this, it’s next to nothing. In a down economy, that’s damn good marketing and a smart way to reach fans without spending a lot of money on something retarded like “Sean Merriman Bobblehead Day”.
As to the comment about New Wave Media, while I agree with the premise, I don’t agree that ESPN is a “traditional” media outlet. ESPN is as on the cutting edge of the Internet as anything out there related to Entertainment. With ESPN360.com and videos with every article and writers like Bill Simmons and those Page 2 who are specifically Internet writers, and also a favorite for every Titans fan, Paul Kuharsky’s AFC South Blog. ESPN does tend to repeat itself, and that’s because the typical viewer of Sportscenter only watches 12 minutes of the show. By traditional Media outlets I think of Newspapers and local news stations with there 2 1/2 minute local sports sections and such, not of ESPN.
http://t-racsposse.blogspot.com
by T--Rac's Posse on Apr 16, 2009 12:23 PM CDT reply actions
no one should know but the team and commish
i swear the last few years freakin berman has been tipping picks with smug satisfaction. last year he cut back because of the backlash. as long as everyone finds out when the commish announces then its fine. if espn is allowed to know before then screw it; let the fans know before too.
ESPN spolied every single pick last year
because they have a camera in every prospect’s house. I guess it is all about what you want. Personally, I like the suspense of waiting until the comish announces it.
Titans Blogger at Music City Miracles even though gramsey hates it.
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