WooHoo! Draft day is finally here. We have a few more hours so let's skip back a few decades to a different time and a different NFL. It may difficult to believe, but there was a time when there was no draft. None! 16 years of no draft. That's a long time to wait for your team's first pick.
George Halas liked it this way. His Bears had the clout. He got most every player that he wanted. If he didn't, Green Bay or New York did. The Bears, Packers and Giants pretty much had a stranglehold on the league. Philadelphia Eagles owner Bert Bell had a better way. His team had no chance competing with the power teams of the league. No one did. He tossed out the idea of the draft with the weaker teams having first shot at the best college talent. Halas knew that his success with the Bears depended upon the overall success of the league. Every team had to be competitive or at least had the hope of being competitive. The other teams could see the logic too, but Halas was always the key. In 1936 the NFL Draft was born. The first ever Heisman Trophy winner became the first ever pick in the draft when University of Chicago halfback Jay Berwanger was selected by the Eagles. The Eagles traded his rights to the Bears but he chose other career opportunities and never played in the league. This actually happened on occasion in the early days of the NFL. Professional football just wasn't the grand occupation that it is now. Same with the draft. It's huge now. Halas may have missed on signing Berwanger, but he showed that he could work with this new draft thing. He struck gold with future Hall of Famers Joe Stydahar and Dan Fortman.
Fast forward to today and the 12th pick of the 2011 NFL Draft: The Minnesota Vikings select University of Washington QB Jake Locker. If any of you 49er fans are listening, I say, in a stroke of incredible luck, Patrick Peterson. There is no true explanation for a player that talented being available at #7. Kinda like the 2007 draft and another player named Peterson.
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