As excited as we’re all getting for this year’s NFL draft—especially one that promises to be less predictable than usual, thanks to the alleged lack of festering scout groupthink—does this whole exercise feel strange to anyone else?
The moral arguments have been well defined. One side, led by Roger Goodell himself, views the draft as a much-needed distraction for a cooped-up public barraged with a stream of news that, on a given day, could range from unsettling to horrifying. (Plus, you know, money.) The other side believes that all of these resources could be put to better use; that it’s silly for prospects to invite even the smallest gathering of supposedly noninfected people into their homes; that it’s unfair to the kids who got overlooked by the combine, suffered injury issues that couldn’t be rehabbed under normal circumstances or posed questions that could not be answered in personal meetings; that it sucks for the teams that won’t have their full war room on draft night or all of the information normally at their disposal (and so on and so on).