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The NFL Draft is an annual sports draft in which NFL teams select newly-eligible players for their rosters. It is used to determine which newly eligible players will play for which NFL teams.
The draft has taken place in New York City since 1965 and has had to move into larger venues as the event has gained in popularity, drawing fans from across the country. The 2006 draft was held at Radio City Music Hall, the first time this venue has hosted the gala, and it has been held there ever since. Madison Square Garden had hosted the event for a number of years, but the NFL moved it to the Javits Convention Center in 2005 following a dispute with the Cablevision-owned arena, who were opposing a new New York Jets/2012 Olympic Stadium which would compete with the Garden for events.
Tickets to the NFL Draft are free and made available to fans on a first-come first-served basis. The tickets are distributed at the box office the morning of the draft, one ticket per person.[1] Long waits in line can be expected for fans hoping to get a live glimpse of their team's high-profile picks, or to express their displeasure at their team picking the "wrong" guy. Fans must arrive early in order to attend the draft.[citation needed]
Since its first broadcast on ESPN in 1980 the draft has gained a cult-like following. The term draftnik was coined to describe these fanatics.
EligibilityThe draft is the first chance teams gets to make contract negotiations with players who have been out of high school for three years. Most drafted players come directly out of College Football programs as seniors or juniors, while some players are selected from other professional leagues like the Arena Football League. A player who is drafted but does not sign a contract can sit out that season, which is referred to as a "holdout", and can re-enter the draft the following year unless they were told differently by the NFL commissioner.[citation needed] Selection FormatThe Draft currently lasts seven rounds. Rules for determining draft orderThe draft order is determined by first generating the order for the first round. That order is based generally on each team's regular season record, except as noted below:
The winners of the Super Bowl are given the last selection, and the losers the second to last selection.[2] Remaining teams are sorted by regular season record, with worse records picking first, regardless of playoff status; teams that make the playoffs can pick before teams that do not. For teams with the same record, teams that fail to make the playoffs always pick before teams that earned playoff berths. For teams that make the playoffs, ties are broken by the order in which teams lost in the playoffs. Remaining ties are broken by strength of schedule. (In the NFL, a team's strength of schedule is the combined records of its 16 opponents, including games played against the team in question, and counting divisional opponents twice. Because of this, each team's opponents' combined wins and losses will add up to 256, so a team whose opponents had more combined wins has a better strength of schedule. For draft order, a lower strength of schedule results in an earlier pick.) If strength of schedule does not resolve a tie, division and/or conference tiebreakers may be used. If the tie still cannot be broken, a coin toss at the NFL Combine is used to determine draft order. Once the order for the first round is determined, teams with the same record "cycle" picks in each subsequent round, regardless of playoff status or any other factor (except that the Super Bowl teams will always pick last in every round). For example, in the 2008 draft, Arizona, Minnesota, Houston, and Philadelphia all finished 8-8, and picked in that order in the first round. In the second round, the order became Minnesota, Houston, Philadelphia, and Arizona. That cycling continues through all seven rounds.
The draft currently takes place over two days, with rounds one and two on Day 1 and rounds three through seven on Day 2. Enthusiasts who stay through the end of day 2 will receive VIP passes to skip the lines and get preferred seating to the following year's draft.[citation needed]
The first overall pick generally gets the richest contract, but other contracts rely on a number of variables. While they generally are based on the previous year's second overall pick, third overall, etc., each player's position also is taken into account. Quarterbacks, for example, usually command more money than defensive linemen, which can skew those dollar figures slightly.[citation needed]
Each team has its representatives attend the draft. During the draft, one team is always "on the clock." In Round 1, teams have 10 minutes to make their choice (previously 15). The decision time drops to 7 minutes (previously 10) in the second round and 5 minutes in Rounds 3-7. If a team doesn't make a decision within its allotted time, the team still can submit its selection at any time after its time is up, but the next team can pick before it, thus possibly stealing a player the later team may have been eyeing. This occurred in the 2003 draft, when the Minnesota Vikings, with the 7th overall pick, were late with their selection. The Jacksonville Jaguars drafted quarterback Byron Leftwich and the Carolina Panthers drafted offensive tackle Jordan Gross before the Vikings were able to submit their selection of defensive tackle Kevin Williams.
Pick TradesTeams may negotiate with one another both before and during the draft for the right to pick an additional player in a given round. For example, a team may include draft picks in future drafts in order to acquire a player during a trading period. Teams may also make negotiations during the draft relinquishing the right to pick in a given round for the right to have an additional pick in a later round. This is the process by which a team may have none or multiple picks in a given round.