Draft net: a behind-the-scenes trip with costumed fans, anxious players and electric activity reveals why the NFL selection process has become an Event

Sporting News, The, May 5, 2003 by Paul Attner

"It is an amazing phenomenon," says Steeg, now a senior vice president for special events. "You've got the true NFL fan; you've got the people who just need a football fix in the spring; you've got the college fan who wants to see where his players wind up. All that comes together to create something no one could have envisioned."

Every Event must have its stars. This one is no different. Each year, the league selects what it believes will be the players most likely to be picked early in the opening round and brings them to New York to brighten up the first day. They come in Thursday night, spend Friday making appearances, then wait anxiously in the Green Room on Saturday for their names to be announced.

Michael Signora and Steve Alic, information managers for the NFC and AFC, have the pressurized task of recommending the chosen few, once they consult with various personnel experts around the league. What they don't want is a player sitting by himself in the Green Room late in the first round or, horrors, into the second. Last year, all five invited players were gone by the seventh pick. Signora and Alic were very relieved.

This year, they invite seven players to New York. Each is given a first-class ticket and a suite at a posh lower Manhattan hotel. Each player can invite as many supporters as he wants--Michigan State receiver Charles Rogers will pay the expenses for a busload of 75 fans--but are allowed only seven guests to sit with him in the Green Room.

Last Friday, the seven players assemble at 6:35 a.m. in the hotel lobby for a quick van trip to an appearance on Good Morning America. Rogers' mom, Cathy, rides with her son; she might be the most excited of all. Only USC quarterback Carson Palmer, who received his Heisman Trophy in New York, and Penn State defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy, a Yonkers, N.Y., native, have been here before. The others stare out the van window, mesmerized; even at this hour, the city is alive, horns blaring. Outside the ABC studios, they are surrounded by a small crowd that cheers on cue during their live interviews. But no autographs, please.

During a noon press conference, news comes in that the Jets have made a deal with the Bears and traded up to the No. 4 pick. They evidently want Dewayne Robertson, a quiet defensive tackle from Kentucky, who by far has been the most uncomfortable in the spotlight. He suddenly is the focus of another press briefing; sweating profusely, he no longer has the lowest profile of the group.

The seven players next are scheduled to ring the closing bell on Wall Street. But Arizona State defensive end Terrell Suggs asks Signora if they can stop first at the site of the World Trade Center. Kennedy stays in the van; he already has visited the site and feels better not seeing it again. Suggs wants to absorb the history. "You can't come to New York without thinking of this," he says.

This being New York, some fans recognize the handsome and reserved Palmer, who had signed a multimillion-dollar contract with the Bengals as the No. 1 overall pick the previous day. He poses for pictures. Robertson quietly buys a booklet detailing the tragedy. And this being New York, Robertson, wide as a good-sized building, attracts the most attention on the floor of the stock exchange. "Good luck tomorrow," he is told repeatedly by the Jets fans among the traders. Giants fans are remarkably restrained.