Annual April Contrasts and Workouts

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The beginning of April always intrigues me. Not because we’re always deep into March Madness. Not because Easter is coming. Not because spring has arrived. (Or here in Florida, summer.)

It’s because I can’t help but read about how teams in the NFL are preparing for the upcoming NFL Draft, the most publicized non-event event in sports.

Let me say up front: I don’t care about any specific team. Never have, except for the few years I enjoyed covering the Jacksonville Jaguars as a beat writer. These days, more than a decade removed from that part of my career, I usually latch onto one or two teams midway through the season to care about — usually teams in the AFC.

I relate that to explain that I don’t care about the draft or its outcome. Players come, players go. Teams get good, get bad, get good again.

For those who aren’t sports fans, please don’t tune out. Hang with me for just a bit longer.

NFL Draft is an Annual Ritual

The draft is an annual hiring event. The NFL’s 32 teams go around seven times to pick new players for themselves, men fresh out of college.

It’s what happens before that selection that intrigues me (and many other people, though in different ways, I suspect).

After these athletes complete their college careers, NFL collect all the video they can find on all the prospects that interest them. And their scouts watch videos and make notes, such as “quick feet,” “uses hands too much,” “plays to the echo of the whistle,” except more elaborate and detailed.

Then there are three big tryout camps. One is the Senior Bowl, which is run by the NFL. The others are the East-West Shrine Bowl and the Hula Bowl.

There’s the massive job fair called the NFL Combine, in which the league invites 300+ players to Indianapolis for a multi-day interview process. That process includes face-to-face interviews, body measurements and several physical challenges: a 40-yard sprint, agility drills, a high jump, throwing and catching drills, etc.

Finally, there are many “pro days,” assigned days on a college campus where multiple players from that school (and sometimes other schools) show up to show off for groups of NFL scouts and coaches.

I don’t really address the NFL Draft in Dead Odds, which is a tale about a successful college football player who dies under mysterious circumstances. It’s not a book about college football, but it is a tale about money and power and control on a college campus and beyond.

Players Are Willing Participants

The players (and their new agents) do all they can to get invitations to all these events. (For no money, by the way. If I were these players, I’d demand the NFL pay them to show up at all these events.)

Players want to make a great impression on teams because they want to improve their draft stock. The higher they get drafted, the more money they will reap from their rookie contracts.

What’s funny to me about all this is the contrasting realities. NFL teams perform more detailed analysis on potential draft picks — future employees — than teams in any other pro sport. Pro basketball and baseball clubs also have deep draft routines, just not as extended as NFL teams. Hockey and soccer aren’t at all comparable.

The contrast is in the money. Basketball contracts are much more lucrative for players than NFL contracts. And baseball contracts even more so. What’s more, baseball and basketball contracts are all guaranteed.

NFL contracts are not.

So, these football players, who all will absorb more physical punishment than baseball and basketball players during their careers, get paid less money to do it. And yet they’re willing to take part in the pre-draft rituals that teams demand.

There are reasons why that’s so. NFL rosters are larger (53 players) than those in other leagues. NFL teams have to buy more players to field a team for their season than those in Major League Baseball (26 players, 28 after September 1), the National Hockey League (23 players) and in the NBA (15 players).

Will A Player Ever Say No?

For years, I’ve secretly wanted a star football player to come out of college deciding he didn’t want to participate in the pre-draft hoopla but still wants to play in the NFL. That is, he’ll finish his college career and then . . . just work hard to stay in shape for the NFL Draft.

He’ll say no to playing in the Senior Bowl. Say no to attending the combine. Say no to participating in a pro day.

If teams send scouts to talk to him, he’ll take the meetings. (Who says no to a potential job interview?) But he won’t work out for them, won’t get measured, won’t take an IQ test.

But here’s how it ends. He goes undrafted, becoming an “undrafted free agent” free to sign with any team — except for a much, much lower salary than his drafted colleagues.

Authors Have Their Own Participation

How does all this relate to writing books, you wonder? I’ve thought about that.

I’m sure there’s an analogy about traditionally published authors vs. Indie authors and about how many new authors will jump through so many hoops to secure a multi-book contract with a Big Five publisher.

And about how a new author who doesn’t want to play the game that traditional publishers require — write a book, get an agent, have the agent pitch us, then maybe we’ll talk — and instead just wants to write a book and publish the book.

In these examples, the money aspect only holds true for the person’s first contract. The higher the draft position, the more money there is. The serious money — for everyone — comes after the first contract ends.

If you’re good at what you do, the money increases once the first contract ends. There’s more up-front bonus money, more guaranteed money, more incentives if success continues.

I suppose this is also part of the beginning of April for me, too. As I said, it’s spring, a hopeful time of year. We’re now a month into Daylight Saving Time. The days are longer, the sun is more plentiful, feeding our souls.

Perhaps that’s why these promising college athletes do what they do in their quest for NFL glory. It’s what they believe they were born to do.

There’s nothing wrong with that logic.