I've decided to mark the extravaganza that is the NFL Draft in the rarest and most random way possible: writing a blog about it.

I love the NFL Draft.  I love the drama.  I love the discussions.  I love the random progostications that are very rarely remembered a week later much less a career later.  And I miss it 363 days a year.  I miss its musk.  I miss its scent.

Without further ado, here is my top 5 list of things that I love about the NFL Draft:

1. Draft Day Trades - Is there anything more dramatic than when ESPN cuts to the podium early and you can see the Commish in the corner of the screen exchanging one note card for another and everyone is frantically trying to figure out what the trade is?  It combines the drama of a Special Report interrupting regularly scheduled programming with the awesomeness of any other major sports trade.  When there's a particularly big, early trade in the first round the buzz surrouning Radio City Music Hall reminds me of those moments when a dramatic verdict is read in court in some movie.  Even Day 2 trades are fun, albeit less dramatic.  For these particular trades, sometimes you're only warning is the logo of the team drafting magically changing to another team.  Seeing the logo actually change is as rare as seeing a shooting star but when it happens, its memorable.  Finally, the best part of any draft day trade is the Trade Details graphic.  Usually the screen is cut into two by a horizontal line with one team's trade detials on top and the other team's details on the bottom.  These usually require 7 minutes of intense studying to comprehend who/what was actually traded because of all the numbers involved and I'm convinced it was the ultimate motivation for the invention of the DVR.  Draft Day trade screems make IKEA instructions look simple.  I could spend another 400 words on the sheer awesomeness of Draft Day Trades, but lets move on.

2.  War Room Shots - ITs supposed to be the ultaimte window into the souls of the drafts biggest players.  Its called the War Room for crying out loud.  The fates of entire careers and franchises are determined by a few select individuals within the confines of this super secret lair.  We never hear audio for any information leaked is sure to sink an entire franchise, it would be like nuclear launch codes making their way into the hands of enemies.  Sounds pretty awesome, right?  Yet, every single War Room shot I've seen looks like a random conference room at your average business park.  Guys in shirts and ties reclining in chairs, likely popping peanut M7M's and doing nothing more than passing time.   It looks more like secret video of an office when the boss is away that you wouldn't want the boss to see.  We'll see occasional phones calls that have about as much urgency as a wrong number call. If I were in an NFL Front Office, I'd at least want to put on a show if I knew we were on a War Room cam complete with shouting matches, thrown pens, and lots of crumpled up pieces of paper. 

3.  The Draft Pick Scroll - Call this a love/hate relationship.  I'm talking about the scroll at the bottom of the screen that quicklIy anc continuously recaps all the picks in that round.  I have the same relationship with the Draft Pick Scroll that I do with traffic lights.  When I get all green lights for a stretch, I love traffic lights.  When I'm getting all red lights, I'm a little frustrated.  When I'm hitting lights a split second too late to plow through the yellow, I'm capable of uncharacteristic violence and profanity.  Same with the Draft Scroll.  When I hit it at just the right spot to get caught up on anything I may have missed, I love it.  When I catch it at the same point over and over again that provides me with no new information, I hate the scroll.  Oddly, it seems every year I'm unnaturally and randomly in sync with one particular team on the Draft Scroll that I always get caught seeing when I glance at the scroll.

4.  Draft Pick Clock - The countdown during every selection that is everpresent in the bottom left corner of the screen, coutning down the seconds for when a fan base explodes in join, implodes with confusion and anger or shrugs with indifference.  It tells us exactly when we are going to have our answer but it also moves at a glacial pace.  Its the adult version of the Christmas Eve clock as a kid.  On Christmas Eve, the clock seems to move about 100 times slower than your average clock.  Same with the draft clock.  One time, I changed the channel as soon as the Detroit Lions were on the clock, watched an entire episode of Seinfeld , turned it back to the draft and the Lions still had 3 minutes left on the Draft Clock.  Turly a scientific marvel is the NFL Draft Pick Clock.

5. Draft Induced Dizziness - Known more commonly by its medical acronym, DID.  This condition is caused by the constant shifting that goes on during a 6 hour NFL Draft on ESPN.  You get whipped around from the main set (which, by law, must grow by one additional person each year) to the interview set on sight, to the reporter standing amongs the family tables, to the set back in Bristol, to the roundtable discusscion at the set of First Take, to the indiividual team camps (Ed Werder in Dallas, Sal Pal in Philly, if either one of these changes, it would be like the perfect couple everyone knows getting an unexpected divroce) to back to the main set for a few minutes, to the commericial break, back to the secondary set on site, etc.  If you read that without getting nauseous, its safe for you to watch the NFL Draft tonight.

Ill have more thoughts tomorrow on tonight's NFL Draft.