Bearly Relevant: Reflecting on the NFL Draft

This post was originally just meant to be a link to my new top ten list, followed by a detailed Lollapalooza breakdown. As you can tell though, I got a little carried away here. So I'll save the Lolla stuff for tomorrow. That will likely be packaged with a Bulls podcast.

Also, I need a new name for this recurring Bears column. I seriously get embarrassed for myself when I type 'Bearly Relevant' into the headline. I just think it sounds dumb. So if anyone can think of a siiick Bears-related pun for a new column name, I'm all ears.

I also just realized the comments were accidentally disabled on yesterday's post - and here I thought it was because you guys don't love me! - so feel free to add Bulls/Hawks/Sox thoughts or whatever here, too.

Oh and go Hawks! They need this one tonight.

- Top ten players the Bears could draft at No. 49

Want to hear something crazy? The NFL Draft is this weekend. Saturday. I know, it's news to me, too.

I think I've explained this once or twice, but it's probably fitting to do so again, considering MovableType tells me this is entry No. 500 in TUP history (!). When I started the old blogspot site - I should get some sort of award for 'longest URL in Web history', right? - I did so with the purpose of solely writing about the NBA and NFL Draft. I loved the NFL Draft. Still do. But at one point - probably when I decided to start that site - it was maybe my favorite day on the Sports Calendar. It's because I grew up a Bears fan in the 90's, which meant consistently missing the playoffs. The reward for doing so, of course, is a high draft pick.

April was the happiest month for me as a Bears fan growing up. It was the only time I actually felt hope. Probably not unlike Spring Training for Cubs fans now (and forever). Being a Bears fan as a little kid in the 90's is probably the closest I'll ever come to being a Cubs fan.

As the years went on and I got a little older, I saw that the Bears couldn't exactly peg first round talent with sniper-like accuracy.

Rashaan Salaam. Curtis Enis. Cade McNown. I talked myself into loving all those guys at the time.....I pinned my little hopes and dreams on them. All epic failures before I turned 12 years old. It's a pretty traumatic thing for a little kid to go through, let me assure you. And, let's be honest, it only got worse from there.

While I was at work last night, my buddy Phil was talking about how he wanted to get Saturday off so he could watch the draft.

My response: "Wait, the draft is Saturday?".

All these years I obsessed over that thing....now I didn't even realize it was this weekend.

I guess it's kind of sad because work/school/blogs/homework leave me with such little free time and have subsequently turned me into a terrible sports fan. But it's also kind of sweet too, because I can guarantee you I would have known exactly what day the draft was on if the Bears had a first round pick. But they don't. Because they have Jay Cutler. And he has probably given me the greatest hope I've ever felt as a Bears fan.

*
If you scroll through the archives of the old blogspot address, you'll notice my plan of only writing about the NBA and NFL Draft didn't last very long. One day, to be exact.

The second post I ever wrote there was titled "Bears Steal Archuleta".

Seriously.

As Simmons likes to say, you can't write comedy that funny.