There was a faint buzz across the nation. As if millions of people across the land had engaged in some secret handshake and agreed to devote the most random Thursday in the history of Thursdays to the NFL.
Those who knew, knew.
Those who didn't, didn't.
It was a speakeasy of sorts. With leaks across Facebook, Twitter and, of course, good old-fashioned ESPN.
The NFL draft was back and just like the league that it represents, it just seems to keep getting more and more addictive each year.
This is probably one of the most dementedly overrated spectacles in the history of the universe—yes, the universe.
If you were advantageous enough to travel across the universe and through space and time and wound up on another planet full of similar people and they had a similar type of sport, I would be hellbent on believing that we were more obnoxiously committed to the "Draft" than they were.
The NFL knows exactly what it's doing.
It has taken what was at one point a morbidly self-indulgent weekend for bloated NFL geeks and Doritos addicts, and transformed it into the Super Bowl's little nephew.
The NFL Draft is Three Things
1. It's the one day where all teams are equal. And the competition is relatively nonexistent, or rather communal. Every team is equally right on draft day and every team is equally wrong.
2. It's the one day where Joe Blow and Armchair Charlie can actually pretend that they're Scott Pioli and Thomas Dimitroff—and nobody would be the wiser. It's the self-gratifying culmination of weeks and months of Internet research...wasted nights that could've been spent doing a great many other things.
3. It's the one day that the NFL, once again, reigns king. It shows, flexes and announces across the entire country that football is the most dominant sport in the United States of America. NBA playoffs on the brink? Who cares? NHL playoffs? Take a back seat. MLB? It's only April...
This is the NFL.
We have this moment and then, boom, nothing until July or August.
So kick up your feet and grab a beverage, because here it is—the moment you've all been waiting for.
The 2012 NFL Draft.