Draft Day Movie Review!

Draft Day Movie Review…..The Captain and I went to the movies over the week-end and saw the Movie Draft Day.

Since, it is a sports related movie…you, as my readers….must have known that this movie would have to be on my must see list.

And it did not disappoint!  

I really liked this movie.  The movie is a Day in the life of an NFL team, particularly the Cleveland Browns.   No actual football playing, just behind the scenes wheeling and dealing.

The stars in this movie are:  Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, (love interest of course…but I don’t feel it took away from the main story line),… Denis Leary, Cameo for Sam Elliot…and a list of sports figures who played themselves such as ESPN’s Chris Berman, Jon Gruden, Deion Sanders, and a host of others.  

The NFL Teams are real in this movie…the football stadiums are real, the ESPN announcers are real…but the players and names of owners, coaches, General Managers, etc are fiction.

First I will give you the “trailer” information describing what this movie is about.

“On the day of the NFL Draft, general manager Sonny Weaver has the opportunity to save football in Cleveland when he trades for the number one pick. He must quickly decide what he’s willing to sacrifice in pursuit of perfection as the lines between his personal and professional life become blurred on a life-changing day for a few hundred young men with dreams of playing in the NFL.”

If you know anything about PRO Football…you will know that there is one day out of the year that is very important to not only owners of NFL Teams, …but to Coaches, current team players and future team players coming from college football teams.  

If you don’t know about the real Draft Day, perhaps I can give you a simplified version, because believe me it can get a bit complicated. 😉

 The basic design of the draft is that each NFL team is given a position (picks) in the drafting order in reverse order relative to its record in the previous year, i.e., the last place team gets positioned with a first pick.

From this position, the team can either select a player or trade their position to another team for other draft positions, a player or players, or any combination thereof. 

Even though, the team owner, coaches, team scouts have an important say in who to choose on Draft day…it is the responsibility of the General Manager…as he has the last say as to who he will pick in the upcoming draft.  Normally, each team will have multiple choices or Picks in each of the total 7 rounds of picks.

But as with all things, there are exceptions! 🙂

If a General Manager gave up one of his “picks” in a previous year or years….to another team, his “number one pick” could be null and void. The General Manager may have given up a number two pick or a number 7 pick OR….if the General Manager has any leverage on certain players or with other General Managers…he can “trade” a pick right on Draft Day!  

So it is never a sure thing on which team will choose which player.  

Many times, a General Manager will pick a player…say a little further down in the draft…like a 9 pick and before the player barely has time to put on the Ball cap with the new team’s logo…that same player will be traded to another team in exchange for another draft pick number.

Of course the picks are determined by the team’s current roster and in what area they need support.  

Perhaps their quarterback was injured last year and so they need a quarterback but are so far down on the pick list that all the “promising great quarterbacks” will all be chosen early on. So the strategy of the General Manager is to get on the phone and try to trade a pick (or future picks) he has for shot at getting a quarterback.

AND then the money available comes into play. This is where the manager of business affairs and contracts for the team, monitors what money is hitting the cap.  In other words the salary cap guru needs to make certain that the players’ pay is structured not to violate pre-set limits. 

If you are following me so far….there is another thing to add to the drama of Draft Day!  The Clock.  A 15 minute clock to be exact. 

When a team is on the Clock…the General Manager and his War Room have only 15 minutes to either make a trade or pick from who is left or to give up their pick to another team for perhaps another round of picks.  

 This movie dramatizes the backroom wheeling and dealing of football’s general managers as they jockey for the best players and try to out maneuver one another while trading draft picks.  

As I said earlier, I love sports and I love watching the Draft Day goings on.

But then I am a Sport’s Fanatic.

My apologies to those of you who do not care for sports, but I don’t think you have to be a sports fan to like this movie.

The Movie Draft Day is a good movie! 🙂

Have you seen it?  Are you planning to see it? 

Thoughts?

Me