NFL Draft

       It is surely no coincidence that the NFL Draft and sports-talk radio rose to prominence at the same time. Sometimes it seems like sports exist mostly as a giant argument. Look at ESPN: First Take, Pardon the Interruption and Around the Horn are all, on some level, televised arguments. People argue over which show has the best arguments, the kind of meta, argument-within-an-argument-about-an-argument that can lead to a confused man screaming profanities at himself.

        The draft is an argument without conclusions or consequences. There is no risk in being wrong -- no embarrassment for arguing, vociferously, that Ryan Leaf would be a better quarterback than Peyton Manning. Unless you are an NFL scout, nobody will remember in three years whether you thought Marcell Dareus could hold his own against the run. We all get to watch and feel like we're part of it. This is the only sporting event where the participants, announcers and spectators all do the same thing: Watch highlights, talk about players, form opinions. General managers risk public humiliation and firing. The rest of us don't. For one weekend, it's a lot more fun to be watching the television than on it.