The Low-Tech NFL Draft

We live in the Technology Age.  Bits of data are everywhere.  Little zeroes and ones buzz past us at high speeds.  Information is readily available 24-hours a day, 7 days per week via the internet.  Nearly anyone can be reached by phone no matter where they are on the planet.

But despite all of this, one little low-tech device will determine the fate of three teams in this April’s NFL Draft – a U.S. mint quarter.

This Friday the Atlanta Falcons, Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs will learn where they will be selecting in the annual meat market.  The decision will be made when a coin toss is performed at the Scouting Combine.  That’s how it works when three teams finish with identical 4-12 records.

These teams have prepared for months on end for this draft.  They’ve studied film, visited college campuses to watch the players in person and they’ve amassed reams of information on every eligible amateur player in the bunch.  All the player personnel people in each organization can quote chapter and verse on each player.  They can certainly tell you where each player will go in this draft.

But it comes down to the toss of a coin.

The biggest decision now for new Falcons’ general manager Thomas Dimitroff?  Head or tails.

It’s a decision that could have the Falcons picking as high as third and as low as fifth.

So much for the Technology Age.  A quarter.  A coin toss.  Washington’s head or an eagle will determine what takes place in April at an event surrounded, controlled and operated by information technology.  But the lowly quarter, the same one that will no longer buy you a cup of coffee, rules the day.

Head or tails.  The high-tech NFL draft just became decidedly low-tech.