I Enjoyed the NFL Draft Circus...

You have to be an old-time fan to remember a time when the NFL draft was pretty much a one-day event, maybe two. It was years ago. There was no hoopla and ever present drama in the Green Room where all the college players wait for their name to be called. The two week build up to what has now become a national sports spectacle didn’t exist. There was no nightly coverage during the combine, no daily interviews of the players and the associated background stories. No one knew where the players mom and dad worked or were born, no one knew how many brothers and sisters they had. In the old days you simply read about each team’s draft selection in the newspaper (remember those?) and then moved on with your day and looked forward to the season. As we found out last week, all of that has changed. It’s now a spectacle lasting several weeks with coverage of the player’s girlfriends splashed across every media outlet in the country. It’s no longer an event, its a sporting circus show and the players are the main attraction. In the end however we all find ourselves falling for it and most of us, including myself, wouldn’t have it any other way. if it’s football related, then anything can be endured!

As was expected, Alabama’s Bryce Young went #1 to The Carolina Panthers, CJ Stroud from Ohio State followed up going to The Texans at #2 and Will Anderson Jr. joining him in Houston at #3. No one was surprised at this as the selections have been pretty much set for weeks. There’s a lot of pressure on these top picks and it remains to be seen who will perform and who will out last the hype. Remember, Tom Terrific went in round four and San Francisco Wonder Boy Brock Purdy was literally the last guy selected in the draft so in my opinion it matters not if you’re selected number 1 or number 259, in the end all that matters is what you do from day 1. Good luck to them all!

The NBA Finals have been exciting for once! The absolute best team in the land according many, The Milwaukee Bucks, were once again upset by The Miami Heat, once again a play-in team. Are we looking at another Miami vs. Boston show down? Let’s hope so as nothing is more spectacular then watching a team from Florida burying a team from Boston in the playoffs. Speaking of which, we might have witnessed one of the greatest choke jobs in sport’s history when the Boston Bruins were eliminated from The Stanley Cup by, you guessed it, The Florida Panthers in a game 7 show down in. Boston had literally three chances to finish off The Panthers going up on them 3 games to 1 but were never able to pull off a victory. The Panthers now own Boston! Bring on The Stanley Cup!

It’s just a few days until The Kentucky Derby horse race. It called, and rightly so, the most exciting 2 minutes in sports. 20 odd horses run around a track accompanied by screaming millions of fans both in Louisville where it takes place and around the world where it will be watched. I’ll be one of the millions and yes I always throw a little action down on my favorite horse to win it. To be honest I’ll spend a lot of time picking a horse. I probably spend more time on my Derby pick then any other pick in any other sport. I look at the jockey stats, the horse history, the breeder and trainer histories and most important the post position where the horses start. I’ve never won, I’ve never cashed a ticket, I walk around after the race with a big “L” thinking about what could have been if that 30 to 1 long shot had come in. Believe me it’s not an easy act but every year at the same time I find myself looking forward to it!

In the end of it all, Florida is not a bad state to live in and enjoy sports. Not to toot our horn, but this year Florida has produced 2 NCAA Final Four Teams (FAU and Miami), an NCAA Women’s Tournament elite 8 (Miami) an 8 seed upset of the NBA’s best team (Miami over Milwaukee) and an 8 seed upset of The NHL’s greatest win team ever (Panthers over Bruins). For some reason we like to be the underdog here in Florida! No wonder everyone wants to live here! Play on I say!

Kev