Timing is everything

Just before NFL Commish Roger Goodell announced the 32nd and final first round pick of the 2007 NFL draft, he said that his league had just set a record for the longest first round ever (six hour and eight minutes). A few fans cheered until Goodell reeled them in, saying: that's not a record we're looking to break.

I accomplished a lot during those six hours back in April. I remember because a bunch of us went to the ATVN newsroom to watch the first round. Then we looked at the clock and realized the NFL needed to shorten the time limits for picks, or we'd be forced to get a life.

Don't get me wrong, I love football. I'm on record saying that not only is football king, but everything else from the NHL to the NBA to NASCAR to MLB is merely a court jester. I could watch football 24/7. Sadly, that's the amount of time now required to broadcast the entire draft. I - along with really anyone else in this county who isn't busy watching Queer Eye - can be found every sunday glued to a television to track my Cowboys. The problem with the draft: it's not a game. It's exciting to me for 15 minutes out of the entire first round when Dallas is on the clock.

That's the biggest problem with the NFL draft. A fan can't just sit there for six hours and eight minutes waiting for the few moments where their team actually doesn't anything that will affect the upcoming season (sorry, Eagles fans, yall didn't even do that until Day 2).

So when it was reported that the second-year commissioner is considering shortening the time-limits for first- and second-round picks (each team now gets 15 minutes), I would have jumped for joy -- but I was still sleepy from staying up til all hours of the night to watch the first day of the draft.

Certain things about the draft just boggle my mind:

• Why does the team with the first overall pick always seem to use all 15 minutes? Didn't they have 15 weeks to make their decision before the clock began ticking?
• What's the point of Mel Kiper's mock draft board? He gets maybe 5-8 picks exactly right each year. That's great that he can tell me about the newest members of my favorite team, but I don't want to hear who he thinks we're going to take anymore. He hasn't predicted a correct Cowboys first round pick since Troy Aikman.
• Why do Eagles fans show up to the draft each year? They're only going to lower the self esteem of whoever Philly picks by booing the crap out of him. Examples: Donovan McNabb and Kevin Kolb.

So while there may never be a solution to the second and third problems with the NFL draft, Goodell is on the right track to fixing this mockery of tic-tockery. 10 minutes for a first round pick is plenty. I know that cuts down a third of the time a team has to try to make a deal, but the fact is most teams know who they want, and there aren't all that many trades that take place. So teams can select their player and move on.

And perhaps I can delay getting on of those life-thingys and continue watching the draft. I know it's not a football game, but the sport is a year-round party. Next year, let's just make sure not to celebrate too late into the night. After all, we do have to get up and do it all again the next day.