2010 NFL Draft has Zennie and Small Luxury Hotels of The World

Sam Bradford 

The 2010 NFL Draft is Thursday night, and as I wrote in the previous blog post, I'm making the trip thanks to The Inn at Irving Place, part of The Small Luxury Hotels of The World brand. The Inn's located in the middle of Manhattan and just two minutes or so from Radio City Music Hall where the NFL Draft will commence on Thursday night

It's a partnership to pay attention to for bloggers because it has nothing to do with what I blog or video-blog about NFL players. At a time when media's broken and businesses are trying to figure out how New Media can help them, this is a great example to follow. But my post is more about the NFL Draft than that, so let's press on. I'll have blog posts about New York life from my experience during the NFL Draft, so be alert for them!

The 2010 NFL Draft marks my sixth consecutive trip to New York City to join my good friend and media partner Bill Chachkes. Again, the venue's Radio City Music Hall in Midtown Manhattan. But while the Draft itself is Thursday and at night for the first time, Draft-related events have already started.

For example there's the "NFL Play 60" event that's held Tuesday and Wednesday this year. "NFL Play 60" is a five-hour gathering in Central Park that features the college football players invited to be at the draft, local kids, and the media. The kids and the players - and the media, though I didn't see anyone do it - go through football related drills. This year, I'm going to dress to catch a football or three. In 2009, I was wearing cocktail attire to Central Park. Nuts.

As to what parties I'm going to attend, that's still up in the air, but not like the movie of the same name. The problem with the NFL Draft, and it's a good one, is that you have to space out time not just to blog but to compress and upload videos. The idea of using a cellphone camcorder and uploading on the spot from an event just doesn't sit well with me from a quality perspective. So time has to be made to produce content from the event. I also plan to just stick around The Inn at Irving Place and do more NFL Draft research.

As to the Draft, while many expect Sam Bradford to be taken #1 by the St. Louis Rams, but I'm of the view the Rams can't afford his $50 million signing bonus. It's a recession. The NFL's been hit hard by it just like everyone else. I can't see the Rams looking all that in the face and picking Bradford. The Rams will either trade the pick and move down or pick a defensive tackle, Ndamukong Suh or Gerald McCoy.

To me, Bradford'a great quarterback, but Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen is better by a bit. Jimmy has an incredible competitive fire and essentially ran the New England Patriots offense under Charlie Weis, when he coached the Fighting Irish. Clausen's read to come in, start, and win now.

The two best running backs are C.J. Spiller and Jahvid Best, of Clemsson and Cal respectively. While Spiller's ranked higher, it's not by much, and were it not for the injury issue many would have Best at the top. Still, Spiller's speed is just plain scary.

But I root for Jahvid Best. He's done a lot for Cal and I look forward to meeting him. GO BEARS!

We also can't overlook Stanford's Toby Gerhart. He should go late in the 1st round or early in the 2nd round. He's that good. The next Jim Brown.

As to speed, while Notre Dame's Golden Tate has it, I'd take Florida State's Dez Bryant over Tate. Bryant's so call character issue is way overblown. He may have, OK, did, lie about his association with Deion Sanders, but that doesn't mean he's going to rob a bank. Bryant would be the perfect receiver for the Oakland Raiders.

If they take him.

Stay tuned.