Football And The Art Of Narrative Flow

It's an ongoing debate in my house about the narrative flow of something and how important it is. Or maybe I'm just on a kick and I'm driving my roommates crazy. The arguments usually follow our Sunday night line-up of Sopranos and Entourage (Which we have dubbed Family Night). My one roommate usually suggest, "It needs more nudity!" To which I spout off something about gratuitous nudity and it not being necessary to the narrative flow.

So I'm watching the NFL draft and all the boring analysis that's going on and what do you know - a narrative story pops up. I'm talking about the plight of Brady Quinn. Quinn is from Columbus, Ohio and his dream as a young kid was to play for the Cleveland Browns, which is not too far from his hometown. How do I know this? Because they kept flashing up the photo of him at age 4 with a Cleveland Browns helmet and jersey. The Cleveland Browns had the third pick in the draft and a really good chance of picking Brady Quinn. When Oakland picked JaMarcus Russell and Detroit selected Calvin Johnson (Yes!), it looked like Brady Quinn will have his dream come true. They cut to Quinn sitting in the audience with his hot blonde girlfriend (No nudity...that would be gratuitous) . He's excited with anticipation. Cleveland has 15 minutes to make their selection so for 15 minutes the commentators talk up Brady Quinn.

"The Cleveland Browns select Offensive Tackle Joe Thomas from Wisconsin."

Everybody's going crazy! What just happened? Brady is reserved but you can tell he's dissapointed. Not only is he not gauranteed to be one of the top paid rookies, he has to sit there for who knows how long until he's drafted by another team. There was talk of him going to Miami at No. 9. But when that pick came and went hours later, you could see the smile on Brady Quinn's face getting strained. And you couldn't miss it because the camera was there to record every facial expression when his name wasn't announced.

For the next couple of hours, Brady Quinn was the top prospect coming in the draft and he sat there and watched as Cornerbacks, Safetys, Defensive Ends were drafted in picks 10 through 21. Then Dallas was next with pick 22. Now Dallas has been known to trade away their picks for more picks and it was a strong possibility. All Brady Quinn could think about is will he be drafted by Dallas? Dallas already has a quarterback so probably not. Then the announcement comes.

"The Dallas Cowboys trade their pick to the Cleveland Browns."

What? Is it true? Could it really happen? Did the Browns have a change of heart?

"The Cleveland Browns select Brady Quinn out of Notre Dame."

Yes! Out protagonist reaches his goal. It was a long, hard road for Brady Quinn but dreams do come true. And I would like to thank Brady Quinn and the NFL for providing a little narrative flow to spice up an afternoon of watching the football draft on TV.