Saturday, April 24, 2004

Sports Preview

There two things for sports fans to keep their eyes on this weekend:

#1. The NFL Draft. The draft begins on Saturday at noon. It lasts for two days, and every pick will be televised on ESPN. Some of you may think this sounds incredibly boring. I beg to differ. ESPN's coverage of the draft is fascinating and informative. The highlights packages of the college players are fabulous, and ESPN's commentator's are incredibly knowledgeable about what each NFL team needs and what teams are looking for in young players. This year's draft has even more excitement than usual because the presumptive #1 pick is Ole Miss' quarterback, Eli Manning. Eli has incredible, NFL pedigree. His father Archie had a tremendous NFL career, and his older brother Peyton is the reigning, league MVP. However, Eli and the Manning family have declared that Eli will not sign with the San Diego Chargers even though the Chargers hold the first pick in the draft.

#2. The Aaron's 499 at the Talledega Motor Speedway in Talledega, AL. Talledega is my favorite race track on the NASCAR circuit. It features high banks, drafting and three-wide in the turns. The aging Ricky Rudd qualified on the pole. As usual, the DEI cars also qualified strong for this restrictor plate race. Waltrip will be starting second and Junior will be going off third. FOX's race coverage begins at 1 pm on Sunday.


Notice what is not on the must-see list for this weekend:

1. Yanks/Sox II. It's April, boys and girls. April. But, I understand if Boston fans need to find joy in this early season success.
2. NBA playoffs. Is anybody watching this?
3. NHL playoffs. Call me in a month when they're finally halfway done.