I remember some things from the 2006 and 2007 NFL Drafts. I remember Mario Williams signing with the Texans. I remember my dad calling our second baseman “D’Brickashaw” before our Little League game. I remember Ted Ginn going to the Dolphins while I was on my way to a french horn recital. I remember all those shots of Brady Quinn in the greenroom, and my mom lamenting how she wished he’d gone fishing like “that boy from Wisconsin” (Joe Thomas).
This wouldn’t be all that odd, except for the fact that I remember pretty much nothing from any other NFL Draft. I don’t have anything against the event. It’s just never drawn me in.
Never, except for those two years.
The happening was probably circumstantial. I was in middle school, so I didn’t really have homework. I was still in Little League, so the ballfield was five minutes away and there was only one game, instead of a doubleheader over in Lake County. VH1 had yet to start airing “I Love Money,” so while the PS2 was simulating between my at-bats in MLB: The Show (I hit something like 20 home runs in a month one of those days for the Huntsville Stars, but the brass back in Milwaukee wouldn’t call me up to Nashville), the draft was the best option among things to flip to via the “source” button on the basement remote.
I was also reading ESPN: The Magazine.
I loved ESPN: The Magazine. Was given a subscription sometime around fourth or fifth grade as a Christmas gift. Ate it up. Long, easy, compelling sports reads. Between that, Streak for the Cash, and my lack of a cell phone, ESPN had me in the palm of its corporate hand.
And I was impressionable. So if ESPN: The Magazine told me to care about something, I was going to care about it.
ESPN: The Magazine was responsible for me taking up fantasy football.
ESPN: The Magazine was responsible for me watching NASCAR (thanks for that one, guys).
ESPN: The Magazine was responsible for me thinking the 2006 U.S. Men’s Soccer Team was NEXT.
And looking back on it, ESPN: The Magazine was probably responsible for me caring about the NFL Draft.
Because why else would I have only cared for those two years?
The truth is, if you put pretty much any sports media in the hands of eleven and twelve year-old dudes, they will think whatever’s being covered is the most important thing in the world.
Which is why The Barking Crow is going to be taking our NIT coverage to Tik Tok (just kidding that sounds terrifying).
