Having Top NFL Draft Pick Is Now 'Lead Necklace'

As far as usefulness and entertainment value, Michael Rosenberg writes for Fox Sports, the NFL draft, which begins Saturday “is dead.” Inflated rookie contracts mean the worst teams have the privilege of paying exorbitant fees for unproven players. Take the Lions, 0-16 last season. Their “reward for being so historically, preposterously awful?” Rosenberg asks. “They get something that nobody else wants!”

As it is, the system goes like this: “I see you’re having trouble swimming, sir. Here—wear this, a lead necklace.” The draft designed to help teams has become both harmful and uninteresting—and a rookie salary cap would help solve that, Rosenberg writes. “The NFL and the players association are headed toward thermonuclear labor war,” Rosenberg writes, "but this is one issue upon which they should agree.”
(More NFL draft stories.)