Why Football's Better, and Why the Steelers are Best

Football is unique among major American sports for the importance of its draft. A team that doesn't draft well will lose; one need look no further than the Green Bay Packers or the Detroit Lions for examples. In basketball and baseball, the impact of poor drafts can be mitigated with cash in free agency: look no further than the Yankees and Red Sox, or the free agents used to surround a single drafted star in the NBA (see: Lakers, Heat, Mavs). The Redskin Potatoes have tried a Yankee-ish approach, throwing money around like grass seed. It hasn't worked yet, and I hope it doesn't.

The Steelers may best illustrate the importance of the draft in pro football. Of the 22 starters on last year's championship team, only three--Kimo von Oelhoffen, James Farrior, and Jeff Hartings--played for another team before the Steelers. And look at the first round draft picks from the five years before Super Bowl XL:

2001: Casey Hampton
2002: Kendall Simmons
2003: Troy Polomalu
2004: Big Ben
2005: Heath Miller.

And a Super Bowl win followed. No coincidence, I think.