Draft Day

Tuesday 29th April 2008
at 02:42am

“In a trade from the Green Bay Packers, the New York Jets select...........”

“What do you mean, in a trade” I yelled at the TV holding my yet to be dried coffee cup in one hand and the towel that was set to do all of the hard work in the other.

“No trade, why trade, what the heck are we trading for?” I couldn’t stop moaning. I had waited all morning for this. Waited through the 8 inane minutes it took each team to select their player after the team before them was done. I had waited for the scroll across the bottom of the screen to tell me the key loss and key gain of the Packers over the off-season. I was even waiting for the Packers logo to show amongst the next five teams to pick along the left hand vertical of the screen.

Let me set the scene. It was a freezing cold morning here on Sunday, probably in the late 50’s at a guess and Ben and I had just finished wrestling on the floor. Luc had just finished his breakfast and Kel, after a massive week with both boys waking at the crack of dawn, was enjoying a well deserved sleep in. Tired of the constant stream of kids programming that seems to have taken our television hostage I thought I’d flick over to the Fox Sports News channel to see what had happened the night before. I missed alot of the footy on Friday and Saturday so I figured this’d be a good way to catch up on things while I had the chance.

Normally very good at changing channels quickly, I didn’t bother to look at the TV as I typed in the numbers on the remote control. In my pursuit of channel 508, Fox Sports News, I pressed the number “5” as Luc began to climb on top of me. Wrapping my strong, muscular, beautifully toned arm around him (don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story) I pressed “0” and as I took care of the number “3” I flipped him over to my front which he gets a great kick out of.

Yes that’s right, instead of pressing “8” I pressed “3” and low and behold, of all of the things in the world I could have stumbled across, it was the NFL Draft in all of its round 1 glory. I could not, even for a second, believe my luck. As per my last post I knew the draft was on this weekend, in fact I had planned to follow it online but to see it here on television, live for all of the homes across the country to see was totally amazing. I quickly checked the guide to make sure I wasn’t dreaming and sure enough I wasn’t. There in black and white it said “0800 to 1000 - NFL Draft”. It didn’t even dawn on me for a moment to check the guides beforehand. Not for a single moment. I couldn’t believe it.

Sure, we only got to see the first round but it was great just seeing it at all. The drama, the mindless chatter between each pick, the endless stream of commercials.....it was just like television here, only, there were different accents, alot more emphasis on tone and there was plenty of excitement for the sake of being excited.

I didn’t sit down and watch the whole thing seeing as the boys needed entertaining but it was on in the background as we fooled around. What I did do though was keep an eye on the progress of our impending selection and when the time came let me tell you, I sat there with baited breath. 

That’s why, after well over an hour, when the Packers time to shine came along and I realised that we had traded our pick, all I could do was scream blue murder at the TV knowing that I wouldn’t see us pick thanks to it being almost 10am and knowing that the broadcast was set to finish.

As luck would have it I did get to see our first pick, Jordy Nelson of Kansas State. I’ve gotta say I’m glad we picked a receiver ‘cause goodness knows we need one. None of the receivers on our side are any good and that is certainly one of weaker positions. Hold on, we’ve still got DD and Greg “just throw me the touchdowns, thanks Aaron” Jennings haven’t we? That’s cool, cause neither of them, with their lack of height, are able to leap short corners and take the one on one high ball. Wait a minute, isn’t that what Ruvell does? Well at least we’ve thrown some fresh blood on the team to compete with all of the veterans at the position, say, James Jones for example. He must be at least 23 these days right?

I did hear somebody say yesterday that when looking at Jordy you also need to consider his special teams suitability and I guess that’s true. Poor old Koren Robinson hasn’t returned a kick for a touchdown in what, 6 weeks?

OK, before anybody tries to knock me out for those harsh words, I’m only stirring. I think he’s a great pick and like I have said all along I’m no analyst. Whatever TT and Mike Mac do is what they do and I’ll keep my runny little nose out of it. Sure I did, like alot of other people, wonder why we took a WR with our first pick but if the men in charge think it’s a good idea then I think it’s a good idea. In the end, they took the team to 14 – 4 last season and all I did was buy a few tickets to see them play.

As for the rest of the draft I need to be totally honest. I wouldn’t have the slightest clue who any of the guys we picked are ‘cause we don’t get a scrap of college football down here. We used to, years and years ago but not now. Apart from the odd bowl game of course but even then it’s the luck of the draw. Plus, whilst in Green Bay we had a rule in our house. I was allowed to watch anything Packers - game highlights, TV, news etc but that was it. No other football unless everybody else was asleep and there was nothing else to do. Whilst I wanted to submerge myself in Badger, Wolverine and Hawaiian Warrior Football (my Hawaii story dates back 15 years too, not just because of this undefeated season) it wasn’t fair of me to, so I took what I was allowed and that was that.

Now if anybody’s interested, in a bid to make up for my draft day ignorance, I’d be happy to provide scores and updates of any team in the Australian Rugby League, Rugby Union or Aussie Rules competition. Or the Indian Premier League (cricket), the English Premier League (soccer) or the Formula 1 where our Aussie man Mark Webber is going great guns at the moment.

Whilst on the mighty Pack (a paragraph ago I know) I want to send a thank you to everyone who let me know about Brett on Letterman during the week. I had read that he was going to be on but that means nothing down here. Knowing that you said he had just been on told me that we weren’t far away from getting it. It’s too bad Letterman doesn’t start here until after midnight but for Brett I stayed up. It was nice seeing him laid back, taking it easy and having Dave take the mickey out of him. I do wonder though whether he’s going to stay retired. The more I see and read the more I think that he’ll come back after the pre-season training is done. I don’t actually think he wanted to retire, I think he just wanted to skip practise and return in say July or August. Who knows huh? I guess we’ll wait and see.

And so ends a very Packer-full week here down under. Another thank you to everyone who sent us Gazette’s and SI’s from Brett’s retirement. A big thanks to Tezza too who sent a boxful of goodies that was way more than expected. (I’d have thanked you sooner but it’s the end of the month and you know what that means – no internet on the allowance again).

Kelly and the boys are good too. We had a nice, busy, long weekend thanks to the ANZAC day holiday - a celebration of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and their sacrifice for us. We caught up with some friends, spent some time down the park after almost 2 weeks’ worth of rain, saw the local “Newtown Jets” play for the first time in years, started to dress a little warmer and even got the boys a haircut each before their eyes started to cover over again.

They both got to fool around in Uncle Anthony’s truck and Ben finally got his drum kit back from our storage unit which he was wrapt about. It turns out that Luc is quite fond of them too so we’re all happy in the end.

Until next week.....Hooroo.

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