Parade of the Three Piece Suits

Not to get all Bill Simmons on you, but as I sit here watching first round coverage of the NFL Draft on ESPN, I have the urge to live-blog and bring you some of my thoughts / observations in real time.  Just let me start by saying that the NFL Draft's first round is one of the best, and most underrated, televised sporting events of the year.  It combines great football analysis, highlights and unintentional comedy into a three-hour program that makes for must-see TV.  Without further ado, here are some of my observations from the 2011 NFL Draft.

• Fantastic Under Armor lapel pin for Cam Newton, who completely unsurprisingly starts his NFL career as a giant billboard.  Note that I didn't say "starts his professional career," since we all know that began at Mississippi State about three years ago.  Still to be determined: whether or not Newton will take a pay cut to leave Auburn for the Carolina Panthers.
• We switched over to NFL Network because ESPN keeps showing video of players on the cell phone crying minutes before they are announced.  What fun is watching the draft if you can't be surprised by the announcement?  Plus, NFL Network has Deion Sanders and his absurdly wide windsor knot doing post-pick interviews with the players, which is a bonus.
• Huge win for NCAA football with Jake Locker going eighth overall to Tennessee.  With Locker having taken a huge risk in coming back to school this year to play at Washington, having him slip late into the draft could have forced a chain reaction whereby even more young college players leave school early for fear of coming back, having a subpar year and crashing through the first round.
• In a stunning upset, light-colored suits dominate the top ten picks of the first round.  With a potentially season-killing lockout looming, it's nice to see the players not dressed like undertakers.

• Newton's lapel pin was good, but it had absolutely nothing on Mike Pouncey's diamond-heavy watch, which had a face roughly the size of a softball (see right).  Good to see these guys are saving wisely in preparation for a lockout.  I just Googled "Mike Pouncey watch" and saw that Twitter is already exploding because of it.
• If you abide by my "guys with awesome names become awesome players" theory, then the Giants did well by taking Prince Amukamara.  While I was hoping for Boston College offensive lineman Sal Costanzo, I'm happy about the pick.  It's always nice to leave the first night satisfied with your team's pick.  And no, that was not a dig at Vikings fans, who now have to live with Florida State's Christian Ponder at quarterback for the next half-decade.
• I now really have a craving for some of the team-colored jelly beans that each team has on their draft table inside of Radio City music hall.  If I ever become the General Manager of the Kansas City Chiefs, you can bet I'll run through an entire mason jar full of strawberry and lemon Jelly Bellys per round.
• Rich Eisen of NFL Network just reported that Eagles draft pick Danny Watkins decided to go to Butte Community College because of the great firefighting program that they have there.  Apparently he decided to go to school solely to concentrate on a firefighting career, and didn't even play football in high school.  Definitely the best non-football-related piece of information of the day.

And on that note, we'll wrap up Caught Looking's coverage of the 2011 NFL Draft.  Let's enjoy these memories, and hope that come this fall we have plenty of actual football-related moments to replace them.  While I love watching these rookies-to-be take the stage in their Sunday finest, I'm even more excited to see them on the field.