I am really tired of the manufactured for television sports "events". Things like the ESPY's and the National Football League Draft drive me crazy. What drives me even crazier is the fact that sometimes I find myself watching them. Their used to be a time after basketball when you had kind of a dead period in sports. Events like the Masters Golf Tournament, The Kentucky Derby, and the opening of major league baseball stole the headlines for a brief period of time.
Not any more. The National Football League is riding the crest right now. We have training camp games on in early August, followed by the now bloated regular season which runs into the new year. The Super Bowl in February is followed by about two weeks without NFL news. Then the hype for the draft begins. We must put up with Mel Kipers hair for two months before the three day NFL draft finally airs in early May. This season, a gay player was drafted which caught the attention of news departments around the country. Video of him kissing his partner far outnumbered in minutes the video of the top three draft choices. When a player on another team said "OMG, that's terrible" he was immediately censured and apologized. We will now follow the gay player through mini-camps and into the regular NFL summer practices with a magnifying glass. This is a player who was drafted eighth from last, but he will receive much more coverage than players of more skill.
The NFL could go the way of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". That show was so popular it moved from one hour, once a week to two hours three days a week. People quickly grew tired of the show and it disappeared. The NFL used to be on only on Sundays.
Then Monday night football followed, then Sunday night football, then Thursday night football, and now Wednesday night football. Really, will a similar fate to Millionaire happen in the NFL. It very well could, but I can't worry about that now, I have to see who is hosting the ESPY's this year.
