This 2014 Kevin Costner Sports Drama Is the Perfect Primer for the NFL Draft
If you want to get hyped for the NFL Draft, watching Draft Day is a great place to start.
Every April, the National Football League assembles for an event that determines its future, both in the short-term and the long. The NFL Draft begins Thursday, August 24, early in the league's offseason period, with many months still to go until games resume. Still, over the years it's become an event that's just as exciting as the season opener for many fans, because it change the course of league history, and shift the fortunes of virtually every team.
On a very basic level, that's because the NFL Draft allows all 32 NFL teams the chance to add new talent to their rosters, but it's much more complicated than league commissioner Roger Goodell just reading off a pre-determined list of draft picks. Behind the scenes, draft week is a bustling, often dramatic showcase of trades, deal-making, and last-minute decisions that can change everything. Fortunately, even before the draft gets underway this week, you can prime yourself for that drama with a viewing of Draft Day, now streaming on Peacock.
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Why Draft Day is the perfect NFL Draft primer
First, a quick little primer of what the NFL Draft is: There are seven rounds of drafting (plus some compensatory picks awarded on an as-needed basis by the league), each with 32 picks in them. The draft order is determined by strength of schedule and record from the previous season, with the Super Bowl champs picking last and the presumably weakest team in the league picking first, in a nod toward achieving some kind of parity. That's pretty straightforward, but it gets more interesting when you realize that teams can trade draft picks back and forth, even across multiple years, in an effort to snag the perfect player now, or defer to another year to get the prime draft spots.
Draft Day is all about the perfect trade move
It's this trade mechanism that launches Draft Day, Ivan Reitman's 2014 film starring Kevin Costner as Sonny Weaver Jr., a fictional general manager of the Cleveland Browns. As the Browns' GM, Sonny is responsible for securing the team's draft picks, and as the 2014 Draft begins, he's pondering a trade offer from the Seattle Seahawks. The Browns have the seventh overall pick, but the Seahawks have the first, and if Sonny gets that pick, he can draft the most highly touted prospect of the year, quarterback Bo Callahan (Josh Pence).
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But Sonny's not so sure that's where his pick should be going. Despite reservations from the team's ownership and coaching staff, he's got his eye on a defensive prospect, linebacker Vontae Mack (Chadwick Boseman), whose star keeps rising as rumors about Callahan, and game footage showing he struggles under pressure, start making the rounds through the draft. Balancing the needs of his team, his own job security, and his family all at once, Sonny must make the right call, and hope that he can stick around for another season.
This is, of course, a dramatization of a fictionalized draft, and what happens behind the scenes on a real Draft Day isn't necessarily going to line up with the way Sonny and his fellow general managers make their moves in the film. It's not 100% accurate, but it does work very well as a depiction of the stakes of any given NFL Draft. On the surface, each draft in the modern era is an event laden with swagger and moments of fan joy and dismay, as players come out in their best suits, big smiles on their faces, ready to greet their future. It's all about image, and about what each team, and each new NFL player, wants to show the audience on that day. What Draft Day depicts, with some dramatic license, is the work which goes into those moments, the deals that can make or break them, and the way each pick, especially in the early rounds, can ripple through the entire league. It's not a documentary by any stretch, but if you're hoping to get excited about what the draft can offer fans of the NFL, it's a great place to start.
Draft Day is now streaming on Peacock. For all the latest NFL news, head to NBC Sports, and get ready for the return of Sunday Night Football this fall on NBC.
