Gaffes, gags, a dog named Buttercup: Wacky NFL draft stories
The NFL will stage its annual draft in Cleveland this week, and despite the social distancing, video links to players in their homes and the like, a lot will be familiar.
There will be drama, hugs with the recently vaccinated commissioner, players pulling on the hats and jerseys of their new teams, and those agonizing waits in the green room.
“Draft time is not real time, it’s water-torture time,” said agent Leigh Steinberg, who has represented 62 first-round selections, eight of whom have gone No. 1 overall. “Every second is elongated like a minute, every minute an hour. The time between picks can be excruciating.”
But over the years, some of the behind-the-scenes stories of the draft are timeless. The gaffes, the gags, and the misunderstandings are the stuff of NFL lore. Some of the stories:
Keep the line busy
Chuck Noll’s Pittsburgh Steelers sure knew how to dial up wins.
On draft day in 1984, they used an actual phone to do so.
That was back in the USFL days, so before NFL teams turned in their selection, they made a practice of touching base with their new player to make sure he hadn’t secretly signed with the rival league. So getting him on the phone was paramount.
Nobody had cellphones at the time, and call waiting was still foreign to a lot of people. If
