King of the Sports Mountain

It may be wrought with off the field problems and be struggling to improve its public perception, but football is still the most popular sport in America. And it is not even close.

We already know the Super Bowl is the single biggest sporting event of the year, in revenue, ratings, and hype. Well, the NFL Draft is in the discussion as the second biggest sports event. Forget trying to compare it with the other league's drafts, the event, held at Radio City this year, sells more tickets than some baseball or basketball games, has better TV ratings than some games, and certainly garners more coverage and hype than most events in the other major sports.

The popularity of this event, with about twenty hours of live TV coverage from two networks, is remarkable given its not even a game. Fans wait in the streets to try to get inside, while thousands attend draft parties that each team holds.

As if we needed more proof, the NFL is an absolute money making machine. The draft shows how much more popular pro football is than every other sport in this country. Though, as a baseball junkie, I do not know if I could sit through sixty rounds of amateur draft coverage. That would be enough Chris Berman to last a lifetime.