The Draft

The 2012 NFL Draft started off with a short, but somewhat inconvenient drizzly walk from our Park Ave offices to Radio City Music Hall.  Upon arrival, I located our meeting spot and began working on drying myself from the drizzle (in a dreaded suit nonetheless).  A group of co-workers and I waited and waited and waited for our 4pm meeting to begin.  Around 4:30pm or so we decided we might not be having that meeting after all. Turns out they met on a floor not indicated in our memo.  Interesting enough start to things, huh?  Needless to say, we found our leader and received our assignments.  Then, we went for some snacks.

Thought these little football cupcakes were so cute!

Right around 5pm, my bag distribution partner in crime and I found our station and began another round of waiting.  Sort of made me understand how the players feel back there in the green room.  Well, minus the whole excitement of potentially becoming a millionaire an NFL player part...haha!  I took a few pictures of the pre-Draft excitement while we waited.

NFL Network set pre-Draft....

They treated these hats like gold.  Too funny!!

I absolutely love passing out these fan bags every year!

FINALLY, we started giving out the free gift bags.  This is my favorite assignment of the whole year. So much my favorite that I have volunteered for the opportunity for all five Drafts that have occurred since my time at the NFL.  I love the enthusiasm and response of the fans to these bags.  This year, I was in a section of the orchestra where mostly media (who much to their chagrin, do NOT receive bags) and members of draftees families were seated.  This proved for an interesting experience.  We seemed to be forcing our gift bags on people more often than we were giving them until we got down to the last handful of bags; then, everyone came out of the woodwork looking for one.  As a five-year veteran, I can assure you that is always how it goes. After we emptied our bins, we grabbed some dinner and watched the first few picks of the draft on TV just like everyone at home.  Glamorous, right?  I did eventually head down to see some of the action myself.  I waited around to check out the Bengals first round pick.  Here are some pics from the closest I got to the action :)

Hope Dre does big things for us this year!!

This one is actually from Day 2...

Day 2 followed in a nearly identical fashion trading the rainy weather for quite chilly winds.  The biggest (and most exciting) difference was that my fabulous boyfriend was in the house on Day 2.  He and his cousin used my tickets for the night.  They had a great time.  I was able to hang out with them for much of the second and all of the third round.  I took a candid posed shot of them and of course a classic with Christopher!

Jelrey and Chris taking in Round 3 on Draft Day 2...

All I have to say is WHO DEY :)

Hope your team drafted well this year!!  Can't wait to see how they all the picks work out in the fall!!  The countdown to football season is ON...

Andrea :)