Saturday April 24th, 2004: The Best Sports Saturday of My Life.


10:50 Saturday morning. The phone rings. It's my dad.

"What are you doing today?"

"Nothing major."

"You want to come watch the draft at Gillette?"

"Absolutely. I'll get there as soon as I can."

And like that, I was gone.

I got there as fast as I could (I may have actually exceeded the speed limit on the drive up). It was 11:58 by the time I parked my car (the draft starts at noon). But considering I had no advance warning, I think I did pretty well.

We were in the Fidelity Clubhouse area. Absolutely freakin' gorgeous. And they hand you three free drink tickets as you walk in the door (price of a beer without the ticket: $6.50).

There were actually a few thousand people there to eat, drink and cheer for players who might see the field five months from now. Cheerleaders walked around handing out signed pictures. It was quite the party.

The food was incredible. I was eating free beef and free swordfish and washing it down with free beer. Did I mention I wasn't paying for any of this?

And football. There was all kinds of football to talk about. Which teams needed what. Who was going to trade out. Was every team in the first round going to take a wide receiver?

Defensive Coordinator Romeo Crenel came out to talk to the crowd (and had to wait for the chants of "RO-ME-OH!" to die down before he could speak).

Offensive Coordinator Charlie Weiss came out and discussed why they made the pick they made in the first round.

Mr. Kraft showed up and thanked us for our support.

Is there anything quite like the NFL draft? Does anyone even care about the draft in other sports? I defy even the most die-hard Red Sox fan to name 2 picks from their last draft.

And there was also baseball to watch. The Sox beat the Yankees. Does it get any better than that? My only complaint is that the Red Sox game could have been on a few more TVs. There were only about 75 televisions in the room, and I had to get up and walk to check the score.

Considering the Patriots had the moving truck loaded up and pointed west a mere twelve years ago, it's amazing to see this much support and excitement in the off-season. The Patriots are the class of the league in the best-run league of all of professional sports.