Brrr. I feel a draft. Must be the Lions

Is the NFL draft over yet? It seems like it's been going on forever and, in some respects, it has. You name the newspaper reporter that covers pro football, or any of a seemingly endless supply of talking heads on TV, and they've been carrying on about this for weeks. In the end, all they accomplished was wasting a lot of trees and throwing out a few trillion worthless sound bytes, because they can no more predict how the draft will go than they can tell us if it's going to rain on any particular day 2 months from now.

They'll break down teams position by position, list their needs in order of importance, ask and answer their own questions, go into "character" issues, tell you how this or that guy fared at the NFL combine, recount their college careers, and probe into every other aspect they can find. I wouldn't be surprised if they knew how much money the tooth fairy normally left under their pillows. They have all the data, but there's just one problem. None of them have a clue how it will eventually play out. Mel Kiper would seem to be the poster child for this nonsense. Here's a guy that's probably made millions by knowing every statistic on every player and team, then predicting the order in which they will get drafted -- by who -- and why. Thing is -- I can't remember him ever getting anything right. I wonder if he's related to Matt Millen somehow.....

Which brings me to the Lions. You name the position (and yes, that includes quarterback -- (if he can't play, what good is he?) other than defensive linemen, and they need help. So what do they draft with their first pick? A defensive lineman. Only the Lions could come up with a pearl of wisdom like that. That's like the Red Wings having 4 goalies, the Tigers having 4 catchers, or the Pistons having 4 point guards. They might all be very good players, but they can't all participate at the same time, which in turn weakens the team elsewhere.

There's a better way to go about this business.

First, the Lions need to draft an owner. Can't be done, you say? Wrong. There's a way. More about that next time.