A Virtual N.F.L. Draft Might Be a Back to the Future Moment

But first, to go back to the future. There was one chief reason the draft in the early 1970s was almost primeval: The event was held about 10 days to two weeks after the Super Bowl. That scheduling had a profound effect, leaving no time for a scouting combine, player workouts, medical examinations or many face-to-face interviews with prospects.

“There was little time to prepare, and in a sense that wasn’t bad,” Accorsi said. “You had no choice whatsoever but to draft by production.”

Members of the college all-American team dominated the early rounds, which was often constructive. In the 1975 draft, for example, three of the top six picks were future members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But from 1967 to 1976, the draft also had 17 rounds, so plenty of players with less decorated careers were drafted, even if general managers sometimes found those players by scanning articles in preseason college football magazines. The fundamental basics of the modern draft started to take shape in 1976 when the event was moved to late spring. It was dropped to 12 rounds the next year. By 1980, ESPN was televising the proceedings, and in the 1990s, the number of rounds was reduced to seven.

When lucrative television contracts turned the N.F.L. into a cultural and business monolith, teams had the money to hire hundreds of college scouts and personnel directors. Prepping for the draft became a year-round endeavor, an obsession within a sport rife with compulsive personalities.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/sports/football/nfl-draft-virtual-past.html