Yet, it is also a perfectly appropriate way to describe the
NFL Draft.
Yes, the NFL draft — pro football’s version of the slave
market on Game of Thrones, but here the Unsullied still have all their parts.
While the merits of keeping the draft around are better left
to the likes of Patrick Hruby over at Sports on Earth, this is more about the
non-stop coverage of the draft by ESPN and the NFL Network.
Much has been made recently about the non-stop coverage of
breaking news on CNN, NBC and the other broadcast networks.
How much of that coverage, in the relentless push to fill
air space, turns out to be wrong.
That is also true for the NFL draft coverage.
Most of the player evaluations, most of the speculation,
most of the mock drafts all turn out to be wrong when viewed from three or four
years in the future.
Remember when the NFL engaged in a serious debate on the
strengths of Ryan Leaf and how he needed to be picked ahead of Peyton Manning?
That is but one example of how all the experts got it wrong
but those same experts keep getting called back to say all the same things, and
say all the same things that will be proven wrong.
It is the sports equivalent of rolling a rock up the mountain.
In some ways, the NFL Network can be excused. They are,
after all, the house organ of the league and if the league wants NFL draft
coverage, the NFL Network will provide draft coverage.
ESPN is a little bit more problematic.
The network is a broadcast partner of the NFL, so they have
a vested interest in providing NFL coverage. But they are also supposed to
provide journalism, and that gets us to C Cups, even when it doesn’t appear
anything like journalism.
On the second day of the NFL draft, at the start of the
fourth round, quarterbacks began to get picked by teams.
Quarterback is the league’s glamour position, and leading
the fourth round was Matt Barkley, who played at Southern California, and
before an injury-riddled senior year, was considered amongst the best players
in the country.
Then more quarterbacks began getting picked. And that’s when
the discussion went off the rails.
Trent Dilfer and Ron Jaworski, both former NFL quarterbacks
got into a spirited discussion on the merits of C Cup and U Cup quarterbacks.
If those aren’t familiar terms, don’t be surprised; they
almost seem invented on the fly. Or at quick production meeting before the
second day’s coverage began.
In previous years, U Cup and C Cup would have been called
“grip” as in how the quarterback grips the ball before he throws it.
The letters are how the quarterback grips the ball. Hold
your hand out, form a “C.” That’s a C Cup. Now hold your hand out, bend at the
wrist and form a “U.” That’s the U Cup.
Dilfer said a C Cup quarterback was more likely to be
successful in the NFL because having your wrist flexible would be able to put
touch on the throw. A U Cup quarterback was only able to throw at one velocity
— fast, because they would be unable to turn the wrist meaning they would be unsuccessful
in the league where precision was needed.
Jaworski countered with Tom Brady, a U Cup quarterback who
has been amazingly successful in the NFL.
And at that point my eyes glazed over and I drifted off into
a comfortable nap with my dog in my lap.
If they said more, I didn't hear it.
It is worth noting that Brady was one of the more remarkable
missed by NFL scouts. A starter at a top-flight school in Michigan and who fell
to the draft’s sixth round when he turned pro.
What’s the point of U Cup and C Cup conversations?
None. This is what you call filling airtime.
It also has the side benefit of making anyone watching just
a little dumber about football.