Draft Day Movie Essay

The Business of Sports
The movie Draft Day is about the intrigues that go on in the National Football League (NFL) franchise during the drafting process. This film show how football teams, managers, and owners work to get top drafts to make a winning team. Kevin Costner plays Sonny Weaver, the general manager of Cleveland Browns trying to save his team that has been on the losing end for a long time. He makes an historical trade with Tom Michaels of Seattle Seahawk for the number one pick by giving out his team’s three first-round picks in the next three years. The movie shows Sonny’s efforts to make a winning team when all odds are turned against him. Sonny already has its own idea at the beginning of the movie. He wrote down his decision

Team owners take on an overbearing role in the team decisions without consulting the general managers, coaches, and other staff involved (Rosner and Shropshire 312). For example, the film features Brown’s owner Anthony Molina demanding from the general manager Sonny Weaver that he needs to “make a splash.” By a splash, Anthony demands that the general manager has to make a forceful decision that ensures that they get the team members they crave. In reality, it is the job of the general manager to make the guiding decisions on the best team members to draft and the right move for the club. However, in this case, the owner takes the dominant role and does not want to be contradicted or consult with anyone. This proves that owners in the sports industry ignore the concept of teamwork in decision-making by pushing resolutions down to the managers without regard for the welfare or future of the entire

The idea is to intimidate one another and backing each other to a corner to ensure that one secures the best deal for his/her team. In the movie, Tom Michaels knowing that Sonny’s Browns has been on the losing end, makes a deal to forgo the number one pick while Sonny has to give him first-round draft picks in the coming three years. Sonny agrees to this not just because of pressure from the owner Anthony, but also because his team needs a quarterback and other key players to break the losing streak they have been enduring. The film also shows Sonny on the phone making a deal with the manager of Jacksonville Jaguars for the number 6 pick and he later overturns the tables on Tom by asking back his number one drafts in the next three years in exchange for getting Bo Callahan whom Seattle Seahawk desperately needs. Ideally, the sports industry works on exploiting the vulnerabilities of the other team to ensure that they get the best deals. General Managers use intimidation and tricks on the other team managers to lock on the best drafts picks