With the First Pick, Andrew Meola Selects…Anything but the NFL Draft

I have turned on SportsCenter every day this week, and almost every time, ESPN has led the show with NFL Draft “news.” It’s bad enough that the four-letter network shoves the almighty NFL down our throats every week of the year. But the NFL Draft is perhaps the most overblown, overhyped event on the sports calendar.

I don’t want to completely napalm the draft. It’s a tremendous thrill for the athletes selected. Hearing their names called and shaking hands with the commissioner is undoubtedly one of the greatest moments of their lives. And they deserve it. But the draft is so riddled with problems that it’s nearly impossible to enjoy.

For starters, the draft is now on in primetime, which is tolerable and by far the least egregious of this event’s crimes. But it’s three days long. Three days! There’s absolutely no reason for the first round to be separate from the second and third and for the second and third to be separate from the final four. Two days should be the absolute maximum.

Secondly, the amount of coverage in the weeks before the draft is completely absurd. Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay bombard us with their mock drafts and predictions day after day after day. I won’t speak for anyone else, but I hit my saturation point pretty darn quickly. And I don’t want to pick on ESPN (though they are the network that perpetuates this whole thing.) Most radio and TV outlets fall into the same trap of blitzing the viewer with draft coverage.

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Beyond the Boxscore: Thanksgiving weekend picks with JJ

After a terrible week 10, I decided to take a week's hiatus from
making picks. After some family, food and of course football, I am now
back with a vengeance for week # 12. The picks were perfect for the
Turkey Day slate, we had Green Bay -6, Miami +7 and Baltimore -3.5

So enough of talking about the past, let's start living in the future baby.

Cleveland @ Cincinnati
The Benglas have certainly been better than anyone could have imagined
thus far this season. Even though this team is coming off a two game
losing streak, I am impressed with the way the Bengals played against
the Pittsburgh Steelers and at the Baltimore Ravens. The Bengals
should have their way on the defensive side of the football against
the totally inept Cleveland Browns. How the Browns have 4 wins is
beyond me, and I love the prospect of picking against a team that does
not have one legitimate fantasy football option. Andy Dalton has
played himself into the Rookie of the Year conversation and the
Bengals should respond in a big way on Sunday.
Bengals -7

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The Chosen One: Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow is an awful quarterback, and we love him because of it. He’s a great football player, great athlete, great role model, great competitor and great leader but an awful quarterback. If Tim Tebow could throw the ball like Peyton Manning, he’d be a nice story and he’d be beloved only by people in Denver and Florida. However, because Tim Tebow throws the ball like a backyard quarterback, he’s the biggest story in the NFL and one of the most talked about people in sports.

We all know his backstory by now. When he was little, he wasn’t supposed to live, but he survived. He grew up knowing deep down he was special but didn’t know why. He went off to school where soon everyone knew who he was. He was a star athlete. He gained a loyal following. Sure, not everyone loved him but for the most part, he was looked at as a symbol of hope. Everyone in the world was talking about him all the way to the end when he defeated Voldemort. Whoops, wrong “boy who lived” story.

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