you never forget your first draft...

when was your first draft? what do you remember about it?

my first draft was 1985.
for a couple years before i'd bought draft magazines and checked out results in the newspaper afterword. then, i found out they were televising the draft on espn, and something compelled me to find a way to watch it. i'd never heard of espn, but my mom's boyfriend at the time had it and said i could come over and watch the whole thing. the draft was a small-time program back then.
what i remember most is the highlights of willie totten throwing bombs and tds to jerry rice and wishing we could draft him, but the analysts kept saying he was going pretty early. then, walsh traded up and picked him, and it was draft bliss. jerry rice popped my draft cherry. the patriots got trevor matich (good lineman) and jim bowman (a bust db). it was a great day; i was hooked. 2014 draft will be #29 for me. one of my favorite holidays.

what's your story?

I didn't care about the draft until around the time I got into high school and started to be interested more in how my team was constructed. For years I wouldn't watch I would just wait until the draft was over, then go read articles about the players we got and hope for the best.

This might give my age away a little bit here but the first draft that I actually watched was online, I was 9 years old and I remember watching us draft Kwame Harris

But the first one that I've actually researched and taken time to look into would have to be this year, I haven't really cared much about the draft until now

Dont remember what year I started watching but I love the draft. With the old two day format, I used to wake up at 6 am Saturday and 4 am Sunday to watch. Had a ritual of going to jacks and getting a portugese sausage, eggs, and rice platter (my Hawaiians know) with a hash brown and large fruit punch for breakfast then watching for hours.

With the new format, it starts later so that's pretty good but I gotta use vacation days to watch on Thursday and Friday. f**k it, its worth it to me. Regretted it in 2012 though!

2001 was my first draft, from 01 through 03 I just checked in on the 49ers picks and didn't watch the whole thing. 04 through now I watch the whole thing but the last few years I have to mute it on day 3 because the nfl keep sucking up to woman and casual fans with a salute to the troops or somebody else every 10 minutes. I'm all for it but they go overboard and they aren't doing it for the right reasons. They love to kiss new fans, casual fans and woman fans butts. It's a slap in the face to the diehards. Then again that happens during game telecasts and with broadcasting, analyzing, commercials, etc too. I know a lot of other diehards have agreed the past few years. At least that nerd with a blackberry (la canfora) stopped tipping picks. Glad they stopped allowing that for all stations.

And I have taken days off work for the draft as well when I worked 3rd shift. I like to study for the draft because it's a lot more fun knowing who we picked, did they pick someone you wanted or didnt want, which player goes where, etc. If you don't know any of the names it takes away a lot of the excitement out of it. I love that high for those few seconds when they announce the 49ers pick. Only happens 1 time a year for about 7-10 picks (especially the first few rounds) and because its so rare it creates such a high for me. I look forward to draft day like kids do to Christmas.

My 1st draft was a great one. Ronnie Lott in round 1 and Eric Wright in round 2
Throw in Carlton Williamson and the worst secondary in the NFL became the best in the league. Back then they said rookies couldn't play in the secondary. They proved everybody wrong.

Originally posted by MC9BEAT:
My 1st draft was a great one. Ronnie Lott in round 1 and Eric Wright in round 2
Throw in Carlton Williamson and the worst secondary in the NFL became the best in the league. Back then they said rookies couldn't play in the secondary. They proved everybody wrong.

Very true. Watching the '81 Niners story on NFL Network this week reminded just how good Bill Walsh was at discovering talent and drafting that talent to fit his vision, no matter what anyone else thought. Roger Craig had only 16 career catches coming out of college, but when Walsh worked him out he saw he had incredible hands for catching the football, and the rest is history...

I never really paid attention the draft but the first year I did I remember wanting Vernon Davis. I was racing Motocross on the day we picked him but I was able to still find out we got him. The 1st one I got to watch was us drafting Patrick Willis (who I desperatly wanted) in 2007 and screamed like a 5 year old who's parents told them to "get dressed we are going to Dairy Queen". I been addicted ever since!

For my first draft, I was watching... wait, I can't remember.

I actually cared about the draft in 2005.

I remember following it for sure as early as 2002 when we drafted Mike Rumph and Saleem Rasheed. I think I paid attention starting in 2000 though when we drafted Julian Peterson and Ahmed Plummer.

I clearly remember watching the 2003 draft though and being PISSED when we drafted Kwame Harris. And then I heard dude talk and it made it even worse. He sounded so soft. Then again Barry Bonds and Troy Polamalu sound kind of soft and they're studs. Kwame definitely played like he talked though. He was a decent run blocker, but when it came to pass blocking Highway 77 was the s**ts.

Originally posted by smifunk:

Originally posted by MC9BEAT:
My 1st draft was a great one. Ronnie Lott in round 1 and Eric Wright in round 2
Throw in Carlton Williamson and the worst secondary in the NFL became the best in the league. Back then they said rookies couldn't play in the secondary. They proved everybody wrong.

Very true. Watching the '81 Niners story on NFL Network this week reminded just how good Bill Walsh was at discovering talent and drafting that talent to fit his vision, no matter what anyone else thought. Roger Craig had only 16 career catches coming out of college, but when Walsh worked him out he saw he had incredible hands for catching the football, and the rest is history...

Walsh's most interesting pick was Joe Montana. He liked Montana right from the start. Walsh had this realization that QB's that were mobile but didn't have the prototype size could be found later in the draft. He loved Montana's comebacks that he engineered at Notre Dame. He talked to all the other teams leading up to the draft comparing notes on different players. He always burried Montana in the conversation somewhere in the middle so no one would sense his interest in him. He concluded that most GM's had Montana as a 5th - 6th round choice. He drafted him with the 1st pick in the 3rd round because he didn't want to chance someone taking him but he knew this was the QB he wanted.

You read stories about players like Tom Brady drafted in the 6th but that was dumb luck. They had no idea he was any good and they were just taking a flier on him. If they thought for a second he was going to be their starter let alone a HOFer they would not have waited till the 6th round.

Originally posted by pwillis52beasty:
I remember following it for sure as early as 2002 when we drafted Mike Rumph and Saleem Rasheed. I think I paid attention starting in 2000 though when we drafted Julian Peterson and Ahmed Plummer.

I clearly remember watching the 2003 draft though and being PISSED when we drafted Kwame Harris. And then I heard dude talk and it made it even worse. He sounded so soft. Then again Barry Bonds and Troy Polamalu sound kind of soft and they're studs. Kwame definitely played like he talked though. He was a decent run blocker, but when it came to pass blocking Highway 77 was the s**ts.

Oh the holds he would do would kill our big plays and drives

I don't remember my first draft. But I don't remember my first kiss either.

Originally posted by NC49erfan82:

Originally posted by pwillis52beasty:
I remember following it for sure as early as 2002 when we drafted Mike Rumph and Saleem Rasheed. I think I paid attention starting in 2000 though when we drafted Julian Peterson and Ahmed Plummer.

I clearly remember watching the 2003 draft though and being PISSED when we drafted Kwame Harris. And then I heard dude talk and it made it even worse. He sounded so soft. Then again Barry Bonds and Troy Polamalu sound kind of soft and they're studs. Kwame definitely played like he talked though. He was a decent run blocker, but when it came to pass blocking Highway 77 was the s**ts.

Oh the holds he would do would kill our big plays and drives

Yup. I remember someone created a 10 minute long LOWLIGHT video on Youtube of Kwame getting beat constantly and committing terrible holding penalties. It had some sad ass music to it. That video cracked me up.