I Can't Escape The NFL Draft

With the NBA and NHL playoffs, the start of the baseball season, and the Manny Pacquiao versus Ricky Hatton fight on May 2, it's a great time to be a sports fan. 

But the one sporting event I could really care less about is the one that I have to hear the most about, the NFL Draft.

The overbearing hype machine called the NFL draft has been in full swing for weeks now. In no other sport is there so much hype in building up to a sport's amateur draft. It seems almost bigger than the Super Bowl.

The ESPN channels are saturated with hours of draft analysis. I should be hearing about D-Wade and King James, not Matthew Stafford and Mark Sanchez. I should be hearing about the Detroit Red Wings trying to repeat as Stanley Cup Champion's, not the Detroit Lions and the pick that can turn around a horrible franchise.

ESPN's two NFL draft guru's, Todd McShay and Mel Kiper, wait the entire year for only these few weeks leading up to the draft. They take the draft so seriously that it seem's like they would fist fight with anyone who opposes their beliefs. In the end, however, these experts don't know much more than you or I on how these player's will perform in the NFL.

I find Mel Kiper especially abrasive at this point, the sight of him causes an instant reflex of me grabbing my television remote and turning the channel. Every year we are guaranteed one thing in sports, that Mel Kiper will hype every top prospect on his "big board" as if they're the next Joe Montana, Lawrence Taylor, or Barry Sanders.

In reality we wont even hear most of these players names ever again after draft weekend.

Watching "NFL Live" on ESPN a couple of weeks ago I saw Mark Schlereth explain the risk of drafting linebacker Aaron Curry. He gave his reasoning as to why he would not use a top 10 pick to draft him. Kiper, who has Curry rated No. 1 on his draft board, responded by comparing Curry to Patriot's linebacker Jerod Mayo. Mayo was the AP's 2008 Defensive Rookie of the Year.

This reminded me of the 2005 NFL draft when Kiper had USC receiver Mike Williams rated the No. 1 player on his draft board.

The Detroit Lions ended up selecting Williams with the 10th overall pick, right ahead of eventual Pro Bowlers DeMarcus Ware, Shawne Merriman, and Jammal Brown. Listening to Kiper you would think the Lions had a steal with the pick and that Williams would be another Randy Moss.

Instead he had about as bad of an NFL career that is possible.

This year's top player's such as Michael Crabtree, Matthew Stafford, Mark Sanchez, and Aaron Curry, seem to be solid if not Hall of Fame caliber talents according to Kiper. 

But the Mike Williams bust is a perfect example of why too much credibility shouldn't be given to Kiper's predictions. You could just as easily compare each prospect to a bust as you can a Pro bowler. Nobody know's a draftee's NFL future.

Each pick in the draft is a gamble whether you're picking a quarterback or defensive tackle. Football may be the toughest sport to transition to from college and there is no telling how a player will fare at the next level.

Will Matt Stafford be more Eli Manning or Alex Smith? More Carson Palmer or Tim Couch?

There are so many great things going on in the sports world that we shouldn't be bombarded with constant NFL draft coverage. It's really just a giant waste of time.