Serious answer

It really really does help but wouldn't work here as it has about 80 years of history behind it.

Players get recruited from high school to the college football teams. There are hundreds, but the best players go to the NCAA Div.1 teams. They are there for 4 years (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior) and then are eligible for the NFL draft (actually these days they can be eligible earlier but let's not confuse the issue).

So, each pre-season all these players declare themselves eligible for the draft. They go to combines (workouts with speed / strength / agility trials) and scouts watch them from various NFL teams (in fact the top recruits are scouted even during their college "career").

Then, the pre-season draft means each team picks 7 players. It is held in rounds. In each round, the last-placed team from the season before gets the first pick, the second last the second pick and so on until the Superbowl champions get the 32nd pick of the round.

At the end, these 7 "rookies" join the team for pre-season training and agree a contract (or are released). They are then part of a large squad which will be slowly "cut" until the pre-season squad is reached. They play 4 games and get a chance to show what they can do. Then the coaches cut down a final time to their roster for the season, and they get full contracts or not accordingly.

The other traditional system of player transfer is the "trade" where one or more players or future draft picks can be traded for one or more players of future draft picks of another team.

If they have any spare roster spots, they then pick up any players who are out-of-contract (e.g. been released by another team).

That was how it was until a few years back when the salary caps, free-agency etc came in and totally confused me. What I have written is still true, but now they also have the free-agency which is for the big-earners and is a bit like a limited Bosman thing.

The draft can only work in the US because team sports evolved there as college sports. Pro football was considered far inferior until the late 60s, and even now draws less crowds than the bigger college teams. Therefore, the college thing was already in place BEFORE the pro leagues. Pretty impossible to develop that the other way around.

Posted By: Steve in Holland on November 24th 2008 at 16:17:21

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