By Jeff Orvis
It's hard to believe that nearly a
week has gone by since the Super Bowl. What started way back in
August with the Hall of Fame preseason game ended on the first day of
February. It was an okay game that wasn't decided until the final
minute. While I was hoping Seattle would win, I wasn't totally
dismayed with the win by the Patriots.
So now it would seem that we are left
with six months before the start of the next football season. For
hardcore NFL fans, there will be some hope in early May when Chicago
hosts the NFL Draft. After those three days of determining well-paid
human bondage, fans will have plenty to talk about before training
camp.
Thanks to plenty of promotion by the
league and wall-to-wall coverage by both ESPN and the NFL Network,
the draft has turned into a real happening. City officials in Chicago
are learning a little more each day just how big this event is. And
amid reports of demands by the league on city officials, I hope they
aren't sorry they won the right to host it.
Radio City Music Hall in New York has
been the home of the draft for the past several years. But the league
decided to give other cities a shot at hosting it and Chicago won
this time around. According to a report this week in the Chicago
Tribune, the draft isn't just a little TV show with a few hundred
spectators. It is an event that will tie up a portion of the downtown
for up to three weeks, complete with technical improvements to the
old theater that will house the event to the tune of
$100,000-$125,000, a pledge of police escorts for various league and
team officials and draft prospects and the assurance that hundreds of
hotel rooms will be available during the period.
The league is very protective of its
brand. You are perhaps aware that there are strict rules about the
use of the term “Super Bowl.” News accounts can refer to the
championship game in this way, but supermarkets selling party foods
for that day have to call it “the big game,” or something similar
unless they pay royalties to the league. The NFL is also dictating
what businesses can be open near the site of the draft and what
products can be sold in view of the TV cameras covering the event.
They had better be NFL-licensed products or the businesses can expect
a visit from lawyers.
City officials are hoping that the
exposure will be good for Chicago, that some youngster watching the
draft from Belle Plaine, Iowa will convince his parents that the
family needs to vacation in the Windy City. It is estimated the whole
event, which will also include some sort of fan fair, concerts, etc.,
could cost up to $4 million. While the league and a Chicago
organizing committee will pay part of the tab, the city could be
liable for a good chunk of it. So there better be a few hundred
thousand prospective vacationers impressed with what they see.
I am a big football fan. I hope my
Bears can rebound and be a viable, championship-caliber team in a
couple of years. But the league is facing plenty of problems, from
poor behavior of some of its players, to the question of the long
term effects of concussions on former players, to the lack of a pro
team in Los Angeles and on and on. I just hope the league isn't using
the draft as a smokescreen to make fans forget about these problems,
for even a few days.
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