Better to draft for football than for war

A friend forwarded a link to an item about famous NFL draft busts last week. It was occasioned by the annual draft of pro football prospects from the college ranks.
Fortunately the word "draft" has only innocuous connotations today in contrast to when I was young and the nation's youth were erupting in discontent, largely because of the U.S. military draft. Kids today may associate the 1960s with Woodstock. We should have been so lucky. So lucky as to have ushered in new tastes of music and fashion, as if those were the biggest issues to be resolved then.
The military draft spelled tragedy for countless U.S. families. It may have been Lyndon Johnson's war (Viet Nam) but Richard Nixon had the responsibility of ending it. It took him six years.
In the end we had those famous images of people practically hanging off the sides of helicopters to escape the onrushing victors, and U.S. troops being told not to wear their uniforms on their way home. The troops might have been subject to verbal abuse from war critics who felt the U.S. was guilty of atrocities. The mood was nothing like today when our National Guardsmen who have been serving abroad get such festive welcome-backs.
The troops, of course, deserve nothing but respect.
I have heard of at least one community having a belated ceremony honoring the people who served in Viet Nam. I gathered that the ceremony was inspired by the kind of welcome backs we have seen here in Morris for our Guardsmen. Perhaps the Viet Nam veterans of Morris, who I don't think were ever feted by anything of gala proportions, could get an appropriate tip of the hat sometime, while they're still with us. Some have died from health problems that were probably attributable to the war environment. Remember the opening to the movie "First Blood?"
I don't think Watergate is really what got Richard Nixon removed from office. In the end it was just the catalyst. Viet Nam was a debacle that disillusioned a whole generation.
The boomers, in the long haul, ended up resilient and adopting American values. The New Left died but the counterculture survived in its innocuous manifestations like the Woodstock foolishness. And the music.
But ultimately we discovered a new young generation enjoying music that we just called "noise," exactly as our elders had decried our listening fare. At least the succeeding generations haven't had to deal with anything like the Viet Nam War, at least not with the scope of that or the ultimate failed outcome.
Today we talk about the draft in the context of athletes in their early 20s (i.e. the pro football draft), with these athletes salivating over making zillions of dollars.
The NFL's annual draft was held last week. It has moved into prime time which is no surprise. The draft is an event for fans to whet their appetite for their favorite sport in the too-long off-season. Roger Goodell is privileged to be commissioner of a sport which is by far the best and most exciting of them all.
While the NBA and major league baseball plug away through seemingly endless regular season games, nearly all of which have no special significance, the NFL plays a schedule of just 16 games in which each one in fact carries significance. They highlight the weekend with the true feeling of being an "event." On Monday we tune in to ESPN Sportscenter and hear the analysis of all the twists and turns, and get updates on the human interest stories that inevitably arise (like Chad Ocho Cinco's antics).
There is nothing to really replace the NFL during its off-season. The week of the draft picks up the slack a little.
There was a time as a young man when I followed the draft closely. Then I slowly realized what a crapshoot it was. Highly touted picks would fizzle and free agents would blossom and star. Today I note with interest whom the Minnesota Vikings draft but I don't exhaustively research.
The Vikings presumably did their homework in the years when they drafted Troy Williamson and Dimitrius Underwood. I mean, I assume they weren't blindfolded and throwing at a dartboard. But they might just as well have been.
Fans my age will remember Vikings draft busts like Leo Hayden, Mardye McDole and Jarvis Redwine.
When the Vikings drafted Chad Greenway, I think it was a deliberate move away from the crapshoot mentality and toward drafting someone who was sure to help us in some way, shape or form - a healthy player with a sound psychological profile from a big-time college program. It worked out.
The Vikings held on to Williamson for one season too long. Not only did Williamson not help the Vikings, he hurt them with dropped passes. One of them, against Green Bay in a Thursday night game, might have helped Tarvaris Jackson solidify himself as starting quarterback. The next year, Visanthe Shiancoe dropped a touchdown pass against Indianapolis that would've spelled victory, and as a result Jackson was forced to the bench. Gus Frerotte took over.
And now we have the mercenary Brett Favre playing his annual game of "will I retire?" Nothing is certain in the NFL. Maybe the Detroit Lions will finally rise from the ashes. Maybe Green Bay will find a defense.
As for the Vikings, will they stay cohesive? Are they devastated by the manner in which they lost to New Orleans in the playoffs (with a typically stupid Favre interception)? Would they be demoralized by a couple more ill-timed Adrian Peterson fumbles?
I don't know, but certainly we'll be relieved when NFL training camps open and we'll again be treated to sports entertainment in which the games all carry a reasonable amount of significance.
Let's see, that comes up in August.
-Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com