Draft Moved: 2014 NFL Draft, May 8-10, 2014, Radio City Music Hall - O.T.I.S.

Literary critic H.L. Mencken said, “When somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money.”

In the NFL, it’s that or the TV ratings.

Of course, that’s not what commissioner Roger Goodell is saying about pushing the NFL draft into May, a TV sweeps month. Goodell blamed the move on a scheduling conflict at Radio City Music Hall, which has an Easter show booked for the last long weekend in April next year.

There must be a tooth fairy convention that same weekend at Madison Square Garden, and the numerous other venues in New York suitable for hosting the three-day draft-a-palooza.

Moving the draft to May 15-17 – Mother’s Day weekend – next year means three more weeks of training for prospects, three additional weeks of scouting and hand-wringing for teams and three more weeks of hype for the NFL Network.

The first round of this year’s draft – which fell on the first day of the May sweep – drew huge ratings that dwarfed popular series such as “American Idol” and “The Office.” Add three more weeks of build-up and the ratings should be even higher.

Those sweeps numbers are key to advertisers, who in theory will be willing to spend more money to air their prime-time spots on ESPN and NFL Network, both of which broadcast the draft.

But it’s not about the money.

It’s also about stretching out the NFL’s offseason to the point where the dark period between the draft and the opening of training camps is almost nonexistent.

Who suffers with the new calendar, which is expected to become permanent?

Rookies, for starters.

“They’re going to lose 3 1/2, four weeks of preparation,” Panthers coach Ron Rivera said last week. “They’re going to have to come in here and hit the ground running. There’s not going to be any rookie camp where it’s just them, because your time’s going to be so limited. So they’re going to have to come in, get thrown right in the mix with the veterans and try to catch up.

“That’s a hard deal. It really is. We as coaches have to be smart about it. We’ve got to make sure we’re teaching them the right way and we’re bringing things along the proper way.”

Some of those rookies will benefit from the extra month on the front end. If a player is recovering from an injury, he’ll have more time to heal and improve his stock before the draft.

The flip side: Players also will have more time to, say, trash their hotel room in Indianapolis, and drop their stock.

“It’s going to be a little more time to put a little more doubt” in the minds of general mangers and scouts, Rivera said. “Four weeks, you start finding out more things.”

A longtime NFL agent, who represents several players in the NFC South, predicted many teams would suffer “paralysis from analysis,” talking themselves out of a prospect given the extra time to over-think things.

And while fans don’t want to sympathize with agents, the high-profile agents will have the top prospects on their payrolls for an additional month.

Again, it’s about the money. Or as Goodell would have you believe, the Easter bunny.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/25/4063662/nfl-draft-moving-to-may-for-money.html#storylink=cpy