OK, how do you know you are a draftnik? This is not
the start of a bad joke. You know you are a draftnik when someone
calls to offer to watch your children so you can see Draft Day the weekend it
opens. That is what happened when my parents saw the preview for Draft
Day and quickly called and offered their babysitting abilities for my two
kids. After thinking about it for a few seconds, I quickly took
them up on the offer and looked forward to seeing what a major motion
picture about my beloved NFL draft might be like.
The movie starts with us being introduced to general manager, Sonny Weaver Jr. (Kevin Costner) and his girlfriend, Ali Parker (Jennifer Garner), on draft day. We see Sonny write something on a piece paper and it is pretty obvious that he is distracted as his girlfriend goes to leave and he is talking with a possible draft pick. I did not realize that players called general managers on draft day, as I always thought it was a one way street until they get drafted. We start to see the various signs of the pressure Sonny is under as he drives to the office on one of the biggest and most important days in the NFL. He shows up with everyone still questioning what he’ll do with their top ten pick and then he gets a phone call from the team with the top pick and makes a fairly believable trade. I say believable, as it is very similar to the trade the Redskins made with St. Louis to draft RG3. After that trade is when the pressure is really turned up on Sonny from all parties, his head coach (Dennis Leary), his fans, his owner, his mother (played brilliantly by Ellen Burstyn). We see Sonny Weaver, who is living in the shadow of his legendary father, meet the criteria of Rudyard Kipling’s “If” every step of the way. For those who are not familiar with what I mean, Google it, but the poem starts like this, “if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.” As the movie plays out and without giving away too much plot, with the exception of one ridiculous trade that any hardcore fan would know could never happen, it was enjoyable to watch and I recommend it to any football fan and even some non-football fans, as my wife enjoyed it too.
The movie starts with us being introduced to general manager, Sonny Weaver Jr. (Kevin Costner) and his girlfriend, Ali Parker (Jennifer Garner), on draft day. We see Sonny write something on a piece paper and it is pretty obvious that he is distracted as his girlfriend goes to leave and he is talking with a possible draft pick. I did not realize that players called general managers on draft day, as I always thought it was a one way street until they get drafted. We start to see the various signs of the pressure Sonny is under as he drives to the office on one of the biggest and most important days in the NFL. He shows up with everyone still questioning what he’ll do with their top ten pick and then he gets a phone call from the team with the top pick and makes a fairly believable trade. I say believable, as it is very similar to the trade the Redskins made with St. Louis to draft RG3. After that trade is when the pressure is really turned up on Sonny from all parties, his head coach (Dennis Leary), his fans, his owner, his mother (played brilliantly by Ellen Burstyn). We see Sonny Weaver, who is living in the shadow of his legendary father, meet the criteria of Rudyard Kipling’s “If” every step of the way. For those who are not familiar with what I mean, Google it, but the poem starts like this, “if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.” As the movie plays out and without giving away too much plot, with the exception of one ridiculous trade that any hardcore fan would know could never happen, it was enjoyable to watch and I recommend it to any football fan and even some non-football fans, as my wife enjoyed it too.
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