Saint Louis (AP) – As the media blitz surrounding Earth Day slowly winds down, news outlets across the globe are sending the best reporters to the great American city, Saint Louis, Missouri. Having thoroughly covered the melting icecaps, the deforested forests, and the mighty rivers that have run dry leaving giant scars across the lands and causing wide spread famine, death, and war, the media elite have started to focus on what is really important: the National Football League Draft Day Classic.
Every year on, or in the few months surrounding, the NFL Draft, the world’s greatest golfing event takes place somewhere in the Midwest. While the true origins of the NFL DDC have been lost in the ether of history, the legend has it that this most elite of all sporting traditions was forged from the fires of the most competitive competition, the most challenging challenges, and some golfers golfing.
We do know the first NFL DDC took place in the sleepy college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan when a few students decided to take a break from studying for finals and hit the links while the weather allowed. While the golf had to be played, knowing who the Detroit Lions selected in the draft was also of utmost importance to the band of hackers out there on those MacKenzie-ian hills of Washtenaw County. Through the miracle of wireless communication, and the recent banning of roaming charges, word of the Lions selection was passed to the foursome whilst they were preparing to tee off.
Since that first DDC there have been traditions that have come—the Birdie—and gone—the traditional post-round Outback run but the tradition lives on. The DDC has been held in such far away lands as western Ann Arbor, the Chicagoland area, and the outskirts of North Liberty but never before, in neither time nor distance, has the DDC been so far away from that mysterious first DDC.
At the beginning of the 20th century Saint Louis was the fourth largest city in the nation. Hosting the both the World’s Fair and the Olympic Games in 1904, the city’s future was very bright indeed. But as the century continued and year after year passed without being able to host the DDC, St. Louis fell into decline. By the 1960s people thought the city would never host the DDC and many fled to the suburbs, to other cities, or simply disappeared. Crime and lousy fashion trends took control. The bell bottomed jeans, huge lapels, and puffed out hair styles were attempts to distract everyone’s attention from the one horrible and unavoidable fact staring the populous in their weary, disillusioned eyes: the DDC was but a dream.
But as Walter Sobchak once said while paraphrasing Theodore Herzl, “If you will it, dude, it is no dream.” The city started small. To help regain its hope it hosted the 1992 PGA Championship. Nick Price, the winner of that tournament, said “Saint Louis is a terrific venue for golf events and if they keep things up, one day, just maybe, they will be able to host the DDC.” It was this memorable quote from the winner’s podium that galvanized the city. Citizens started caring again. The push was on. The city attracted the Rams from Los Angeles to prove it was relevant in any NFL DDC discussion. Downtown revitalization projects began en masse to make space for the throngs of people that were sure to come with any DDC visit. Entire warehouse districts were transformed from vacant shells into hotels, office buildings, and trendy lofts. Businesses moved from the county and parts unknown hoping to one day be part of the DDC experience.
To help better prepare to host such an important and meaningful event as the DDC, the city played host to Pope John Paul II in 1999. On his two day visit to the city, the Pontiff declared the city was spiritually ready to be honored with the DDC. To ensure the city could withstand the celebrations that would accompany the DDC the Rams won the Super Bowl in 2000 and the Cardinals won the World Series in 2006. These two victories represented a victory lap for the city. The infrastructure was there. The spiritual awakening had taken place. Finally, the sports enthusiasm was in full force as well.
When people around the country talk of the economic downturn, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the resurgence of old threats in Russia and China, they do so only because they have forgotten about the DDC. Barack Obama was swept into the White House by a wave of popular support looking for hope and change. The people did not realize that the hope and change they needed could not be found in political promises. The hope and change they need can only be found in the pageantry and glory of the DDC.
It is the sound of titanium composite striking balata. The radiantly green fairways. The perfect recovery shot after launching a drive into the trees. The excitement of going for it over the water hazard protecting the green. The strategic planning of each hole. The gamesmanship of making the other side putt it out. The thrill of sinking a forty foot putt to stymie the match. The hoisting of the Birdie, with its bronze shining in the sun. These are the things that will give the people hope and will inspire them to create the change they for which they are so desperately searching. The American people may have forgotten this but they will remember.
The NFL DDC, ladies and gentlemen, it truly and unmistakably is the tradition unlike any other.
