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THE PICK IS IN
Christmas in April. That’s what the NFL Draft is to millions of football fans every year.
Since 1936, the Draft’s functional purpose has been to fairly allocate incoming talent from college football to professional teams. But over the last 30 years in particular, the NFL Draft has exploded from a clandestine meeting in a hotel ballroom to a multi-day annual touring event attended by hundreds of thousands of passionate football fans all waiting to hear four magical words: The Pick Is In.
Combining meticulous research, insightful anecdotes, and an occasional bit of humor, award-winning sports writer BJ Pickard tells the story of how the modern NFL Draft was made. The conversations, the contexts, the steals, the busts - from Ki-Jana Carter to Caleb Williams and everything in between - The Pick Is In puts a spotlight on some of the most consequential prospects of the last 30 years to explain how an annual selection meeting became one of the biggest spectacles in sports.
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About
BJ Pickard is a veteran athletics administrator and executive in the sports industry. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (B.A.) and the University of Washington (M.Ed.), his career has included stops with the Philadelphia 76ers, Arena Football League (AFL), and Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). In 2018, Pickard was recognized by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) as the recipient of the Best in Nation award for Event Coverage at the record-setting Saint John’s University versus University of St. Thomas college football game at Target Field in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Pickard currently serves as the Associate Commissioner of the MIAC (NCAA Division III), the Assistant Director of the National College Athlete Honor Society (Chi Alpha Sigma), and the Executive Director of Pick-6 Scouting.
