NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell answers a question during a news conference in this file photo. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)Is it really news that the Oakland Raiders used a third-round pick on Terrelle Pryor in Monday’s NFL supplemental draft? Wouldn’t it have been news only if they hadn’t?
Isn’t this similar (theoretically, anyway) to Las Vegas inking Charlie Sheen as its spokesperson under the slogan, “Whatever I’ve done, you can come here and do it, too”?
Pryor and the Raiders go together like peanut butter and jelly, baseball and fireworks, Michele Bachmann and unintended comedy.
The Raiders could have no more resisted taking Pryor than Congress can resist spending money the United States doesn’t have.
But that’s not what made the tainted former Ohio State quarterback’s delayed entry into pro football either historical or hysterical. Its lasting impact is that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell approved the Terrelle Pryor Draft — and that’s really what it was, since none of the remaining five eligible draftees were chosen — while upholding the NCAA’s prior five-game suspension of the player for this college season.