The Grand Illusion
Because I’m originally from Denver, and because my grandfather bought season tickets back when the Broncos were terrible and tickets were actually affordable, he took me to a few games when I was a teenager. As result, I do follow the Broncos, if neither religiously nor obsessively.
I was mildly surprised to see a headline that the Broncos had drafted Bo Nix – the Oregon quarterback who’s gotten a lot of attention over the past few years. I was then even more surprised to learn that, despite the fact that the Broncos desperately need a first-rate quarterback, and not a retread from elsewhere (despite their short success with Peyton Manning), and the fact that Nix was about the top of those available when the Broncos picked, all the football “pundits” decided that the Broncos had made one of the worse choices possible.
I read a bit further and discovered those same pundits had trashed the choices of a few other teams as well, all of which irritated me. Choosing which college players will make it in the NFL is anything but a sure thing, and the pundits are often wrong. Sometimes, players no one ever heard of make it big time. Brock Purdy, the current SF 49ers quarterback, was “Mr. Irrelevant,” the very last player drafted in 2022. Back in 2000, the New England Patriots took the 199th pick in the draft to choose a fellow named Brady.
On the other hand, who remembers JaMarcus Russell, Terry Baker, Tim Couch, Ryan Leaf, or quite a few other high draft picks who never lived up to their college performance and hype?
It’s one thing to judge a professional football player on his NFL statistics and career, or a coach on his won-lost record, but it’s another to second-guess a football team’s picks well before the fact. One of the reasons I don’t like such second-guessing is that almost no one holds the second-guessers to account. By the next draft, everyone’s forgotten inaccurate second-guessing, but the negative impacts to coaches and teams tend to linger.
But then, I’ve never been fond of negative second-guessers in any field, particularly in politics, where all too many of the inaccurate second-guessers don’t have that much in-depth experience, and in writing, where too many second-guesses reflect more what critics and reviewers like as opposed how well the author accomplished what he or she set out to do.
What gets me is the unceasing attention BEFORE the draft, article after article wargaming the choices of each team. Then, when the inevitable trades occur, another round of articles.
It used to be that the news was about stuff that happened. Now, the “news” is filled with breathless accounts of what MIGHT happen, in the endless pursuit of eyeballs with clickbait.
And then of course the complete re-hashing of what happened compared to what might’ve happened.
The same pattern occurs everywhere now, with the weather, awards, earnings announcements, and interest rate changes.
The news has basically been turned into yesterday’s bubblegum, chewed and re-chewed until any flavor is gone.
“The news has basically been turned into yesterday’s bubblegum, chewed and re-chewed until any flavor is gone.”
Well said!
I actually saw a piece on Yahoo where the local draftnik went back to the draft grades he’d given out three years ago, and whacked himself over the head on all the ones he got wrong.
The fact that I read it shows there’s at least *some* market for such articles, of course…
I don’t believe there is such a thing as universal human nature but I do think there is a prevalent trait in our species to want to fill dead air.
How many times do we find ourselves having the same conversations over and over again with nothing new or least nothing substantative to add?
I tend to think this phenomenon of meaningless and inane clickbait articles predates the modern era of the internet. I suspect it dates back at least as far as print media and has progressively been amplified with each technological advance.
I remember reading some of my grandmother’s women’s magazines as a child and they were full of inane and meaningless articles and gossip along with a some actual substance. The advent of 24/7 television news broadcasters probably didn’t help matters either.
@Sam. Good point. I had forgotten Women’s Realm which was usually lying around when i was a child. Then there was National Geographic.
I think Bo Nix might turn out to be a very good choice. The guy has a strong character and competes well. How true it is that nobody knows how these draft picks will actually turn out. Unhappily, I am cursed to be Cowboy fan- come from being from Shreveport. I feel like Linus in the pumpkin patch. I do like the Broncos, and I wish them good fortune with the coming season. And “From The Forest” was a treat to read- thanks very much.