National Football League Draft - Wikipedia

See also: List of NFL drafts

 

In the early 1930s, Stan Kostka had an excellent college career as a University of Minnesota running back, leading the Minnesota Gophers to an undefeated season in 1934. Every NFL team wanted to sign him. Kostka took advantage of the lack of a draft and held out for the highest possible offer. While a free agent, he even ran for Mayor of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. Although his political career did not take off, Kostka's nine-month NFL holdout succeeded and he became the league's highest-paid player, signing a $5,000 contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers on August 25, 1935. As a response to the bidding war for Stan Kostka, the NFL instituted the draft in 1936.[3]

In late 1934, Art Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, gave the right of usage of two players to the New York Giants because Rooney's team had no chance to participate in the postseason. After the owner of the Boston Redskins, George Preston Marshall, protested the transaction, the president of the NFL, Joe F. Carr, disallowed the Giants the ability to employ the players.[4] At a league meeting in December 1934, the NFL introduced a waiver rule to prevent such transactions. Any player released by a team during the season would be able to be claimed by other teams. The selection order to claim the player would be in inverse order to the teams' standings at the time.[4][5]

Throughout this time, Bert Bell, co-owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, felt his team's lack of competitiveness on the field made it difficult for the Eagles to sell tickets and to be profitable.[6] Compounding the Eagles' problems were players signed with teams that offered the most money,[7] or if the money being equal, players chose to sign with the most prestigious teams at the time,[8] who had established a winning tradition.[9] As a result, the NFL was dominated by the Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Giants, and Redskins.[10][11] Bell's inability to sign a desired prospect, Stan Kostka, in 1935,[7][12][13] eventually led Bell to believe the only way for the NFL to have enduring success was for all teams to have an equal opportunity to sign eligible players.[10][14][15] At a league meeting on May 18, 1935, Bell proposed a draft be instituted to enhance the possibility of competitive parity on the field in order to ensure the financial viability of all franchises. His proposal was adopted unanimously that day,[16][17][18][19] although the first draft would not occur until the next off-season.[14][15]

The rules for the selection of the players in the first draft were, first, that a list of college seniors[20][21] would be assembled by each franchise and submitted into a pool. From this pool, each franchise would select, in inverse order to their team's record in the previous year, a player. With this selection, the franchise had the unilateral right to negotiate a contract with that player,[22][23] or the ability to trade that player to another team for a player, or players.[24] If, for any reason, the franchise was unsuccessful in negotiating a contract with the player and was unable to trade the player, the president of the NFL could attempt to arbitrate a settlement between the player and the franchise. If the president was unable to settle the dispute, then the player would be placed in the reserve list of the franchise and would be unavailable to play for any team in the NFL that year.[22][23] In the 1935 NFL season, the Eagles finished in last place at 2–9, thus securing themselves the first pick in the draft.[25][26][27]

The first draft (1936)

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The first NFL draft began at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia on February 8, 1936.[14][15] Ninety names were written on a blackboard in the meeting room from which the teams would choose.[28][29] As no team had a scouting department, the list was created from either print media sources, visits to local colleges by team executives, or by recommendations to team executives.[28][29][30] The draft would last for nine rounds,[15][29][31] and it had no media coverage.[15] The first player selected in the draft was Jay Berwanger. Bell, prior to the draft, was not successfully able to negotiate a contract with Berwanger so Bell traded him to the Bears.[32][33][34] George Halas, owner of the Bears, was also unsuccessful in signing Berwanger.[35] Berwanger's decision to not play in the NFL was not unusual, as only twenty-four of the eighty-one players selected chose to play in the NFL that year.[36] The draft was recessed on the first day and it was continued and finished on the next day.[37]

This draft saw the emergence of Wellington Mara as a savant, as he had been subscribing to magazines and local and out-of-town papers to build up dossiers of college players across the country, which resulted in the Giants' drafting of Tuffy Leemans.[38] As a result of the institution of the draft, Tim Mara, owner of the Giants, reduced Ken Strong's salary offer to $3,200 from $6,000 a year for 1936 because Mara felt the draft would alter the salary structure of the NFL.[39] Generally, the franchises' exclusivity in negotiating with draft picks produced the immediate effect of, depending on sources, stopping the escalating salaries of new players,[15][20] or reducing their salaries.[40][41] Consequently, contemporary critics charged it was anti-labor.[42]

Early drafts (1937–1946)

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Art Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, chose Byron "Whizzer" White in the first round of the 1938 draft despite White's known public declaration that he would not play professional football and would instead begin work on his Rhodes scholarship. White did, however, agree to play for the 1938 season after Rooney publicly gave him a guaranteed contract of $15,000, double what any other player had made in the NFL.[43] The size of the dollar amount brought condemnation from other owners because it altered the pay expectations of college draftees.[44] For the 1939 draft Wellington, for the first time, was put in charge of drafting players for the Giants. He submitted the list of players into the pool that the Giants—or other franchises—could choose players from. However, in the first round he selected a player, Walt Nielsen, not on the list of players that the Giants or any other franchise had submitted. With a grin Wellington stated, "I didn't think I said I put every name on that list."[45]

In 1939, Kenny Washington was, to no small extent, viewed as one of the greatest college football players of all time. After information was made available to at least one owner of a franchise that Washington was African-American, he was not drafted by any team for the 1940 NFL draft.[46]

The draft would be eventually codified into the NFL Constitution,[47] although no information is available on when that originally occurred.

"Bullet Bill" Dudley was the first overall pick in the 1942 draft and he would eventually become the first player picked first overall in the draft to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame.[48]

Scouting era begins (1946–1959)

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Eddie Kotal became the first player scout in 1946 when he was hired by Dan Reeves of the Los Angeles Rams.[49][50]

The NFL's competition with the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in 1947 resulted in a temporary institution of a bonus pick. Under this system, the first overall selection was awarded as a bonus pick by a random draw, while the last place team picked second, and so on. The team that won this draft lottery then forfeited its selection in the final round of the draft. The winner was then also eliminated from the draw in future years. By 1958, all twelve clubs in the league at the time had received a bonus choice and this system was abolished.[51][52]

Competitive parity did not, however, quickly arrive in the NFL as perennial losers, such as the Eagles and Chicago Cardinals, standings' did not improve until 1947.[40][53]

In the 1949 NFL draft, George Taliaferro became the first African-American selected when he was chosen in the thirteenth round. He however, chose to sign with an AAFC team. Wally Triplett was chosen in the nineteenth and he would be the first African-American to be selected in the draft and make an NFL team.[54] After the draft and prior to the start of the season, Paul "Tank" Younger was signed by the Los Angeles Rams as a free agent and became the first NFL player from an historically black college.[50][54] Eddie Robinson, Younger's coach at Grambling, promptly and unequivocally, impressed upon him that the future of the recruitment and drafting of his colleagues at other black colleges lay in the balance based on his success with the Rams.[55]

Technology (1960–1979)

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The 1960 NFL draft marked a turning point in the draft's history because of the pending arrival of the American Football League (AFL), as it became a "high-stakes, competitive affair."[56]

In 1976, former NFL wide receiver Paul Salata first coined the moniker "Mr. Irrelevant" to refer to the last overall player selected in the draft.[57]

ESPN and the digital age (1980–2017)

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In 1980, Chet Simmons, president of the year-old ESPN, asked Pete Rozelle if the fledgling network could broadcast coverage of the draft live on ESPN. Although Rozelle did not believe it would be entertaining television, he agreed.[58][59] In 1988, the NFL moved the draft from weekdays to the weekend and ESPN's ratings of the coverage improved dramatically.[58][60]

In 2006, ESPN received competition when the NFL Network, which had launched in October 2003, began to produce its own draft coverage. ESPN pays the NFL a rights fee for the non-exclusive rights to draft coverage, a fee that is included in its overall contract to televise games (ESPN Sunday Night NFL from 1987 to 2005, and Monday Night Football from 2006 to the present).[61]

In 2010, the NFL moved to a three-day draft with the first day encompassing the first round beginning at 8:00 pm EDT Thursday, the second day encompassing the second and third rounds beginning at 7:00 pm EDT Friday, and third day concluding the process with the final four rounds beginning at 11:00 am EDT Saturday.

Fox, NFL Network, ESPN, and ABC (2018)

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In 2018, the draft was first carried on broadcast television. As a prelude to their new Thursday Night Football contract, Fox and NFL Network simulcast the first two nights of the draft, with both nights featuring personnel from both NFL Network and Fox.[62] ESPN continued to produce its own coverage of the draft, with ESPN2 simulcasting days 1 and 2, and ABC simulcasting day 3. NFL Network's main set featured the crew of host Rich Eisen, Daniel Jeremiah, draft expert Mike Mayock, and Stanford head coach David Shaw, with Steve Mariucci, Steve Smith Sr., and Fox NFL lead analyst Troy Aikman joining from an outside set for day 1. Other analysts included: Fox College Football lead analyst Joel Klatt, Charles Davis, and Deion Sanders.

NFL Network, ABC, and ESPN (2019–present)

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The Fox/NFL Network simulcast would only last one year, as ABC picked up the broadcast television rights for all 3 days of the draft in 2019. ABC's coverage would have the College GameDay crew on days 1 and 2, with Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts, joined by 2018 NFL MVP and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and Grammy Award winner Taylor Swift, co-hosting with GameDay host Rece Davis on day 1. Also, on day 1, Swift announced her new single "ME!", featuring Panic! at the Disco's Brendon Urie, being released at midnight ET, with the music video debuting on YouTube at the same time. Day 3 featured the ESPN crew of Trey Wingo, NFL insiders Louis Riddick, and draft experts Todd McShay and Mel Kiper Jr., hosting ABC's coverage, which was a simulcast of ESPN's coverage.

For the 2020 NFL draft, which was supposed to be in Las Vegas but was moved to a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NFL Network decided to simulcast ESPN's coverage of all 3 days. Personalities from NFL Network like: draft guru Daniel Jeremiah, Hall of Fame QB Kurt Warner, and Hall of Fame WR Michael Irvin joined ESPN personnel on all 3 days. ABC continued to carry a feed with the College GameDay crew for the first two days of the draft. Majority of the analysts joined remotely from their homes with Trey Wingo, Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, and Maria Taylor working from ESPN's Bristol, CT studios. Todd McShay was to also participate in the draft, but was unable to due to him testing positive for COVID.

2021 saw a return to normal as after a one-year hiatus, NFL Network returned to producing their own coverage of the draft. ESPN and ABC continued to carry separate feeds, one with all the "X's and O's" on ESPN, and the other with the College GameDay crew on ABC. After Wingo left ESPN in 2020, Mike Greenberg, host of Get Up!, took over as ESPN's host for the first two nights, while Davis, who continued as ABC's host, hosted ESPN's coverage of Day 3, which was also simulcast on ABC.

2022 saw the draft head to Las Vegas after a two-year wait. NFL Network saw no personnel changes, but ESPN and ABC took a few hits. ESPN announced that insider Adam Schefter would miss the draft to attend his son's college graduation, and Mel Kiper Jr. would participate virtually because of his COVID-19 vaccination status. Kirk Herbstreit meanwhile, announced himself that he would be dropping out of ABC's draft coverage due to blood clots.