Welcome to the only official SoBros Network NFL Draft Diary on the internet. You guys pay for the behind-the-scenes stuff, so you’re gonna get the behind-the-scenes stuff.
The NFL Draft coming to Nashville was a dream come true for a lot of us. Back when I was a kid and the NFL never deviated from hosting the event at Radio City Music Hall, I would’ve laughed in your face if you told me the NFL Draft would someday be held in Nashville. Yet, here we stand!
The NFL rejected my request for press credentials, which was to be expected. The only issue I had was in waiting until the week of the draft to tell me. Me being the ball of OCD that I am, I made three separate plans – go and document the experience on social media, go and try to find somewhere else to work on actual broadcasts and articles, or not go and get all the broadcasts and articles I want in. Content-wise, staying home probably would’ve been the best bet, but I was in a unique position to provide first-hand footage of the entire experience. I felt I would’ve been dumb to pass up on that opportunity. Time will tell whether that was the right decision or not.
Nonetheless, deciding to go down and check it all out meant it was time to assemble a team.
Thursday
I like to hoard my vacation time at the shoot job, so instead of taking two days off, I took four hours off on Thursday and four hours off on Friday. Poppa Bear showed up at the apartment just before noon with a water bottle full of whiskey. Mose wasn’t too far behind. I clocked out at the day job and we proceeded to chug whiskey before hopping in a Lyft and heading downtown.
We wanted to get down early to make sure we saw all of the fan experience stuff AND still had time to eat, drink, and get a good spot in the crowd for the first round. It was an absolute breeze – I didn’t realize it until the weekend ended, but MAN, the city and the NFL really came together to make the logistics of this event smooth and seamless.
The three of us walked right in to the fan experience, set up at Nissan Stadium, across the Cumberland River from downtown Nashville. Thousands of people were walking around, taking in the sights and sounds of all of the football fans, representing all 32 teams. Our first stop was the locker room. They had fake lockers set up under a tent to show what the typical NFL locker looks like – one for each team. Ours was Marcus Mariota’s.
Then, it was on to get a free koozie and check out some of the memorabilia from the College Football Hall of Fame. You could get your photo taken with the Lombardi Trophy (obviously, given the featured image). The lines were long for some of this stuff, but it moved like a breeze. I really can’t hammer home what an easy experience the NFL made this for everyone.
From there, we discovered an oasis of food trucks. Bud Light had a bar set up, but much to Poppa Bear’s dismay, they only served beer and wine (he only drinks liquor). So, Mose and I had a round, and I got what was essentially Korean BBQ in a cup from Funk Seoul Brother. Nashville hot chicken sounded good – I mean, on a day when we’re celebrating our city, why NOT have one of its greatest culinary offerings to the world? But, the line for Hattie B’s was insane.
We finished up our lunch (Poppa Bear had some brisket mac n’ cheese from somewhere (God I love Nashville)) and moseyed back around to see all of the Super Bowl rings. Really cool except for the people who were stopping to take at least five photos of EVERY RING. Then, it was on to scope out the pro shops. Upon discovering “NFL Draft in Nashville” t-shirts were $32 a pop, we elected to NOT purchase one and we made our way across the Pedestrian Bridge and into downtown Nashville.
At the height of the bridge, it really hit me how absurd this whole thing felt. Again, I’m still a product of small-town Nashville. I grew up in the country. Seeing this massive production in my city was flooring. On my left, we saw the lounge….the red carpet. On the right was the main draft stage and the green room. It was surreal.
We took our exit and walked down the stairs, ending up right there on 2nd Avenue. We walked towards Broadway and discovered that the College Gameday crew was set up on the corner of 2nd and Broadway. You can’t miss the silhouette of Lee Corso.
I walked out in that intersection and immediately felt engulfed by a sea of people. I looked to my left, and saw nothing but the tops of heads for what felt like a mile. To my right, it was the main NFL Draft stage and all the bright lights that came along with it. It was a little overwhelming, to be honest – still a bit surreal. I couldn’t hear a thing…just a constant roar of people. We saw Bobby Bones, not 10 feet away from us, interviewing people on the street. It was crazy.
Poppa Bear ventured off somewhere in the mass of humanity. I lost track of Mose but quickly found him. “We gotta get out of here before I have a panic attack,” I say. He agrees, so we find Poppa Bear and head up 2nd Avenue to Buffalo Billiards.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t that crowded. We found three spots on the bar, posted up, rested our feet, and drank ourselves half blind waiting for the draft to start. My girlfriend showed up in time to grab a beer with us and then we were on down to the festivities.
I walked up to Broadway and quickly realized we weren’t going to see shit. Luckily (kind of?) it started raining like the bottom fell out. People started leaving because they are reasonable individuals who realized it wasn’t worth getting soaked. Our crew, on the other hand, wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
So, we stood in the pouring rain for well over an hour – It may have been two, honestly. It was just completely surreal – I know, I keep using that word – to look up and see the bright lights of Broadway reflecting in the pouring rain as it fell down on the crowd. When the Titans picked, we cheered our asses off, and then we walked a few blocks to my girlfriend’s car and got the hell out of dodge.
The whole time, we’re just thinking, “did that just happen?”
Friday
Friday was much more tame. I sat around the apartment recovering all day. Poppa Bear joined me around five and we went on down to check things out. The thing is…we never made it out of Buffalo’s!
The booze was flowing and the view on the TVs was much better than we were going to get in the mess on Broadway. We met a couple old timers who were Browns and Bills fans and just hung out with them. Around midnight, we ventured out to Mike’s Ice Cream and passed a barrage of people puking in the streets and falling down. Rookies – real Nashvillians know we don’t pull that shit ’til 4AM.
All in all, it was an experience I’ll never forget. Whether or not it will truly be “once in a lifetime,” it sure felt like it then.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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