Mocking NFL Draft by Focusing on First-Round Picks Who Played College Hoops

They were the equivalent of Johnny Basketball. Historically, the first 15 NFL drafts from 1936 through 1950 had a former college basketball regular selected among the top 10 picks. Four of the top six choices and five of the top 11 in the 1957 draft were ex-college hoopsters. To our knowledge, none of them shed tears upon learning they had been drafted. The top former hoopster chosen this year was South Carolina receiver Bruce Ellington (4th round/106th pick overall), who went on to lead the San Francisco 49ers in preseason receptions and wound up their premier kick returner. Factoring in work ethic, it wouldn't be surprising if Ellington makes more of an NFL impact that Gamecocks teammate Jadeveon Clowney, the first selection overall in the draft by the Houston Texans.

Ellington tabbed later than expected was a significantly bigger story than Sam Who I Am's late selection by the St. Louis Rams, but you couldn't tell it from ESPN's contrived "courageous" presentation driving a seventh-rate social issue down everyone's throat except for perhaps Tony Dungy. ESPN probably had an investigative reporter or Keith Olbermann limo driver/pun provider ready to pounce upon any traditional-values bakery if the Missouri establishment didn't sell facial cake to the sweet-loving weeping couple. If there is no crying in baseball, then why is there in football?

It might seem queer regarding basketball, but ESPN (the Extra Sensitive Pious Network) probably also has an ESPY-in-waiting Arthur Ashe Courage Award for Massachusetts guard Derrick Gordon. Will ESPN manufacture an in-your-face kiss-by-kiss account, including gay-bar reaction, if Gordon becomes Defensive Player of the Year in the Atlantic 10 Conference and a late second-round pick in the NBA draft? For crying out loud, the topic must give ESPN executives so many thrills down their legs that preseason planning sessions during Gay Pride Month will result in A-team analysts Jay Bilas and/or Dick Vitale assigned to cover all of UMass' games.

Back in 1963 when men were men before all of the diversity sensitivity training (#BringBackOurBalls), five of the top 22 picks, including four from schools that have always been or subsequently became members of the Big Ten Conference, were in the same category. Before assessing ESPN's infatuation with Sam Who I Am's showering habits prior to being released by the Rams and hooking on with the Dallas Cowboys' practice squad, it's time to size up facts with the following alphabetical list of NFL first-round draft choices who played varsity college basketball for a current NCAA Division I university:

*Bechtol played in the AAFC, where he was a second-round pick (9th overall).