Kinda comical, and kinda true

[Green Jets & Ham]

NY TIMES

NFL Draft Daze: The Lost Weekend

By ALEX WILLIAMS

April 23, 2006

The Super Bowl is one thing. Plenty of women who consider themselves football widows throughout the fall can make peace with the thought of spending a few hours once a year in front of a television for a game that itself transcends sports — an American carnival, a spectacle of money and excess, held in festive locales, with rock stars performing at halftime and plenty of color and pageantry along the way.

The NFL draft, however, is something else. Officially known as the National Football League's annual player selection meeting, the draft is basically a weekend where representatives from each professional football team gather in Manhattan and divvy up last season's crop of collegiate talent. Each team allowed to pick one player per round (barring trades) over the course of seven rounds to add to next season's roster.

Like the Super Bowl, the draft comes once a year. Like the Super Bowl, it features football players.

But that's about where the similarities end. Equal parts livestock auction and trade convention, the draft unfolds as slowly as a championship cricket match in Pakistan — 17 hours over two days.

ESPN's coverage of the event, which will be held this year at Radio City Music Hall, starts at noon next Saturday, and ends Sunday at 6 p.m. And much of the action seems to consist of middle-aged men standing around in windowless rooms waiting for telephones to ring. It's sports without the sports, you might say.

Yet for a large and growing subculture of American men, it is also a phenomenon, for some even rivaling the Super Bowl itself in importance. ESPN's Nielsen ratings for the first day of the draft, which registered a 4.3 last year, have more than tripled since the mid-80's.

The audience is 79 percent male, and seemingly about 97 percent obsessed. Normal life grinds to a halt each year during draft weekend. Travel plans are delayed, social obligations are put off and wives and girlfriends are tuned out.

"The season ends in late January and starts in July, and between, there is a time lapse I call the "desert,' " said Henry Browning, 38, a pharmaceutical research scientist who uses the draft as a pretext to leave his wife behind in Kalamazoo, Mich., and travel — to San Francisco this year — with four old graduate school buddies and hold a two-day draft party. "I consider the draft the oasis."

For a large and growing subculture of American women, this is a weekend to be endured.

"It's insane," said Mia Rosenwasser, 28, a high school Spanish teacher in Atlanta who loses her fiancé, Chad Kishel, for about 48 hours every April as he and his male friends temporarily transfer their emotional commitment to the slick-haired ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. "I think it's uniquely male."

Most women go through at least a phase of trying to understand it.

"Last year, I was trying to be supportive, and I sat with my boyfriend for maybe an hour," Ms. Rosenwasser said. "Then I found out it went on all day. He was going to be spending seven and a half hours in the same room, without leaving."

Andrea Lavinthal, a magazine beauty editor in Manhattan said she has reluctantly decided that draft mania must be some male equivalent to what the Oscar's red carpet show is for women.

"Guys can watch the actual Academy Awards show," Ms. Lavinthal said, "but we need three hours of Joan Rivers beforehand. We need to know about the hair and makeup. It's the same thing. They need to be out in front with this knowledge. They need to be in the know."

The growth in popularity of fantasy football leagues can account for some of the increase in popularity of the draft. The event provides fantasy players reams of data and insight they can use to plan their rosters. The draft is also the rare football event where half the audience does not go home miserable.

Fans of all 32 teams have a stake in the outcome, and because every team comes out of the weekend with new talent, every fan can imagine himself a winner. But that does not necessarily account for the passion that many draft aficionados display.

Ms. Rosenwasser said her fiancé has been planning to observe a meticulous draft day regimen. He will start with an early morning workout to get the juices flowing, will fire up the barbecue grill around noon, and will spend every free minute beyond those chores reviewing the draft analysis he has been compiling for months. When his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers are on the clock to make a selection, it is understood that everyone in the room is to remain silent.

He does not want anything to "break his concentration," said Ms. Rosenwasser, who added that she planned to endure the draft this year by quietly sitting beside him, working on plans for their wedding and honeymoon

While several women interviewed insisted that they considered themselves football fans, most said that the draft seemed to represent an insurmountable gender barrier.

"I used to try to make myself pass out," recalled a 26-year-old public relations executive in Washington who asked that her name not be used because she didn't want to embarrass her prominent foreign political family. A Washington Redskins fan herself, she nonetheless said spending two days in a darkened studio apartment watching the draft with her ex-boyfriend was like being trapped "in a surreal bubble."

"I just wanted to lose consciousness, so I wouldn't have to watch," she said. "Being trapped in that space, it was terrible. But I couldn't go out and do anything, because if I left," she said, her boyfriend would pout, as if she "didn't appreciate history in the making."

This year, she said, she has a new boyfriend, and she considers their first draft weekend together something of a test. "It could make or break the relationship," she said wearily.

To be certain, not all male football fans are obsessive about the draft. Will Leitch, the editor of the sports blog Deadspin.com, admitted in an e-mail message that he finds "the notion of middle-aged balding men salivating over 20-year-old college men in their underwear on national television a bit creepy."

But those who are into it are very, very into it.

Tim Gerheim, 24, a law student at the University of Texas at Austin, said the draft is his favorite sporting event of the year, something he anticipates and enjoys more than the Super Bowl.

"It's a very intellectual experience," he said. "You're trying to predict what is going to happen, you're putting yourself in the shoes of the people who are the decision makers."

The male obsession with the draft does reveal tendencies about how each gender approaches sports fandom. Men tend to value clear-cut measurements of ability and achievement — which is almost all the draft is — more than female sports fans, who take greater interest in athletes' personality and character, said Steven J. Danish, a psychology professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who specializes in sports-related issues.

"Men want data and statistics," Dr. Danish said. "They don't care if athletes are nice people. But women are much more interested in the back story, whether they helped people out when they were growing up."

Certainly the hunger for data borders on addiction.

"Every year, I say I'm not going to do it, but I end up with the television on right through Sunday night," said Russell Levine, a sports media executive who lives in West Orange, N.J. His wife, Susan Levine, was as sympathetic as most wives could be. The two met in a sports bar, after all, and Ms. Levine said she considers herself one of the biggest female football fans she knows.

Still, the charms of the N.F.L. draft are largely lost on her. She can only make it through about 20 picks in the first round, she said.

"I actually take care of the children," she said, "while he's sitting in front of the TV."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/fashion/sundaystyles/23NFL.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[Smizzy]

My wife won't watch sports other then Yankee games. The NFL draft she will let me watch with no complaints whatsoever. Gotta love it.

[SoFlaJets]

good article-the wife has no concept of who is who and what the ramifications are-I say stuff like well maybe we can trade down to 7 if so and so is there and get their number whatever pick AND say a Jerry Porter...she's like OK..yea

[Green Jets & Ham]

good article-the wife has no concept of who is who and what the ramifications are-I say stuff like well maybe we can trade down to 7 if so and so is there and get their number whatever pick AND say a Jerry Porter...she's like OK..yea

LOL!!

I can relate ... I never had a Girlfriend who could even begin to endure the NFL draft ... my ex once said it's worse than root canal, took my car keys and ran for the hills

Smiz, you are lucky my friend ... you married a saint

[NIGHT STALKER]

All you guys that have girlfriends/wives that are into sports, you don't know how lucky you are...

[SoFlaJets]

All you guys that have girlfriends/wives that are into sports, you don't know how lucky you are...

Oh yea JFF my wife Robbin is a big time Jets fan-gets e-mail alerts from the team and all.Her screename is Jetsgirl

[RSJ]

I met my wife about a month before the 1996 draft. Her family always has a big party to celebrate the opening of fishing season. They have a house with some nice property and a river on it that is stocked. Anyway, she wanted to go there that day but I told her I needed to watch the draft. She was like "Wtf is that?". She hated the Jets at the time (now she loves them). Anyway, I explained what it was and she suggested that we watch it at her apartment. I warned her that is was a all weekend thing - but she insisted. Anyway she watched it with me from cover to cover and didn't complain once. Even during the ESPN rap up afterwords. That my friends is Love. She will not put herself through the draft anymore and because she is a nurse and works weekends she doesn't catch many games. But to sit through what must be to an outsider the most boring thing in the world - that is love my friends.

[Green Jets & Ham]

I met my wife about a month before the 1996 draft. Her family always has a big party to celebrate the opening of fishing season. They have a house with some nice property and a river on it that is stocked. Anyway, she wanted to go there that day but I told her I needed to watch the draft. She was like "Wtf is that?". She hated the Jets at the time (now she loves them). Anyway, I explained what it was and she suggested that we watch it at her apartment. I warned her that is was a all weekend thing - but she insisted. Anyway she watched it with me from cover to cover and didn't complain once. Even during the ESPN rap up afterwords. That my friends is Love. She will not put herself through the draft anymore and because she is a nurse and works weekends she doesn't catch many games. But to sit through what must be to an outsider the most boring thing in the world - that is love my friends.

Wow man, at least she kept her word ... you should have known right then and there that she was special ... most girls will say whatever has to be said to get their way, but once it comes time to keep that commitment and actually let you watch the draft in peace, they wouldn't last an hour before they start sulking

That, my friend, is an amazing lady ... a trooper

[Verde]

Damn, I'm gonna go remind my hubby how fluckin lucky he is. Not only do I 'let' him watch it, I'm right there with him. Both days.

[Shadetree]

rsherry....in laws on a stocked river? Sweet...so sweet. Here's some advice...start fishing at night/the crack of dawn in a kayak. Topwater lures. You'll thank me.

My wife deserves some kudos, too. She won't be around so she set set up babysitting and picked up all ingredients for my sauce, which I will start to cook @ 7:30 am, and begin to chow @ 12:01 pm.

[Green Jets & Ham]

Damn, I'm gonna go remind my hubby how fluckin lucky he is. Not only do I 'let' him watch it, I'm right there with him. Both days.

What more needs to be said about that ... speaks for itself ... your husbands wife is a saint

[YJF]

It's hard to find time for everybody in your life. The weekends are premium for those you care about and for those who care about you.

But this weekend, I shut everybody out. I watch the draft wall to wall. It could be 80 degress and sunny out, I'm inside rooting for prospects to be taken by my team in The 5th round!lol

I was actually supposed to work this saturday but I got off by lying and saying that I had a family engagement to attend to. In a way, I do.. I consider The Jets apart of my family.

[Kerry Rhodes]

It's hard to find time for everybody in your life. The weekends are premium for those you care about and for those who care about you.

But this weekend, I shut everybody out. I watch the draft wall to wall. It could be 80 degress and sunny out, I'm inside rooting for prospects to be taken by my team in The 5th round!lol

I was actually supposed to work this saturday but I got off by lying and saying that I had a family engagement to attend to. In a way, I do.. I consider The Jets apart of my family.

YJF,

Who are you liking, Projecting to the team?

[Green Jets & Ham]

I was actually supposed to work this saturday but I got off by lying and saying that I had a family engagement to attend to. In a way, I do.. I consider The Jets apart of my family.

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was funny, YJF

[GreenBeans]

You know what's great, fellas? Having GJ&H and YJF in the same thread at JN. That's great. So, YJF, do you like Mangold at 29 if he's there? How about you, Ham? I'm a Mangold junky.

[Maxman]

Damn, I'm gonna go remind my hubby how fluckin lucky he is. Not only do I 'let' him watch it, I'm right there with him. Both days.

He is lucky? I missed the part where you bought him ear plugs I guess.

[GreenBeans]

He is lucky? I missed the part where you bought him ear plugs I guess.

Don't listen to Max, V. No earplugs needed for you.

[RSJ]

rsherry....in laws on a stocked river? Sweet...so sweet. Here's some advice...start fishing at night/the crack of dawn in a kayak. Topwater lures. You'll thank me.

My wife deserves some kudos, too. She won't be around so she set set up babysitting and picked up all ingredients for my sauce, which I will start to cook @ 7:30 am, and begin to chow @ 12:01 pm.

I will have to try that. I have not been over there yet this year due to little league commitments. I will most likely make it a point to go after the draft stuff is over.

No kids AND a phat spread? Nice deal. I do not get many draft accomatations these days. Three kids kills all of your bargaining leverage. Kudos to your wife for the thoughtfullness.

[YJF]

YJF,

Who are you liking, Projecting to the team?

Hey Merc,

This is the most difficult year to project what The Jets are going to do.

I think that The Jets want Mario Williams. I think that The Jets have their fingers crossed that The Saints take D'Brick or that they trade out to a team that wants to come up for a QB.(Oakland, Arizona?) That's my take on things. If the Jets stay at 4 and things go as planned. They will probably draft D'Brick.

Everything with The Jets this year is a crapshoot because outside of kicker and punter. I can see The Jets taking players in this draft at any position. I think what The Jets do at 4, will define what they do at 29 and 35 and so on.

Jets could very easily go RB, QB, OL, DL or LB in those first three rounds.

I don't know who The Jets are going to draft but I do know what type of players, The Jets new regime are going to target.

The real shocker will be if The Jets don't draft a QB in day one of the draft.

[Green Jets & Ham]

You know what's great, fellas? Having GJ&H and YJF in the same thread at JN. That's great. So, YJF, do you like Mangold at 29 if he's there? How about you, Ham? I'm a Mangold junky.

Awesome Center prospect, GB .. could be a dominant center .. so it's a pick you cannot dislike in my view

[YJF]

You know what's great, fellas? Having GJ&H and YJF in the same thread at JN. That's great. So, YJF, do you like Mangold at 29 if he's there? How about you, Ham? I'm a Mangold junky.

Mangold is an excellent player. I would love to see him with The Jets. Most Jets fans had Mangold pegged for The Jets at the end of the 1st round but that has cooled off now with the signing of Trey Teague somewhat. I still think that The Jets are in the market for a center but OT is top priority on the o-line, must be addressed before center is.

If The Jets take him late in the first or early 2nd, You will not see me complain one bit.

[Smizzy]

ManGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD at 29 or 35 will make me a very happy Jets fan. Our interior line needs some new blood,like yesterday.

[JetCane]

He is lucky? I missed the part where you bought him ear plugs I guess.

LOL!!!

[GreenBeans]

Mangold is an excellent player. I would love to see him with The Jets. Most Jets fans had Mangold pegged for The Jets at the end of the 1st round but that has cooled off now with the signing of Trey Teague somewhat. I still think that The Jets are in the market for a center but OT is top priority on the o-line, must be addressed before center is.

If The Jets take him late in the first or early 2nd, You will not see me complain one bit.

Mangold just SOUNDS like a Mangini type of kid. Fox Sports Radio had an interview with him that screamed "Pick me!" at Mangini. What do you guys think about LenDale White? Does he make it to #35?

[Verde]

He is lucky? I missed the part where you bought him ear plugs I guess.

And I missed the part where you are funny.

[YJF]

Mangold just SOUNDS like a Mangini type of kid. Fox Sports Radio had an interview with him that screamed "Pick me!" at Mangini. What do you guys think about LenDale White? Does he make it to #35?

I was actually thinking about this today. I think there is a chance that The Jets take Lendale White at some point. Maybe 35. I recall two Jets a couple of months ago talking about White. Pennington and Martin. Chad and Lendale worked out at the same facility. Curtis Martin also raved about White in an interview.

I am not as high on White as others are but it would be hard to argue taking him at 35 if he's there and we are still there.

White's situation is alot like Heath Miller's from last years draft. Miller carried a first round grade going into last years draft and then he missed all his workouts due to injury but still held his grade. There were those that felt that Heath could fall out of round one because of his injury. White's in the same type of situation. Big time college performer with 1st round grade that is suffering from injury and no workouts to showcase his talents. White however may fall out because of an attitude issue.

You gotta take him at 35 if he's there based on value in my opinion.

[RSJ]

Damn, I'm gonna go remind my hubby how fluckin lucky he is. Not only do I 'let' him watch it, I'm right there with him. Both days.

That ungrateful bastard.