Perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of the NFL draft is watching the confluence of overinformation and hiveminding, and its resultant baffling draft decisions.
Exhibit 95,000 or so: Myron Rolle, safety, drafted 207th by the Tennessee Titans. Rolle, as most people know, was named a Rhodes Scholar last year, and spent the 2009 season at Oxford University instead of playing at FSU. This, to scouts and executives, was apparently a great affront to the sport itself.
Here's what Tampa staffers asked him during scouting:
During a 45-minute interview before the Senior Bowl in January with seven members of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers staff, including head coach Raheem Morris and general manager Mark Dominik, one member of the staff asked Rolle what it felt like to desert his team this season.
And here's NFL.com's assessment of his time in England:
Rolle missed entire 2009 collegiate season studying in Oxford (Rhodes scholarship), raising questions about his long-term desire to play football.
So naturally, Rolle had to be punished by getting drafted about three rounds later than a player of his caliber ought to be. And let's be honest: these are not serious concerns. Rolle isn't going to walk off the field during a game because he just thought of a cure for cancer. He had his teammates' blessing to get into Oxford. And this notion that he's got some super-meta awareness about his intelligence that makes him a mincing fraidy-cat as soon as the pads start popping is, frankly, the product of a scouting process bloated beyond recognition.
And besides, If they'd really wanted a valid reason to drop Rolle down the draft board, it's this:
Unacceptable.
