Giants Draft: Review Pt. 10 The Character Stuff

The Giants drafted a bunch of team captains this weekend, and that seemed like a big deal to a lot of people.   It became a talking point, but the Giants often draft team captains.  Think about it, though they may not be drafting the best players in the draft, they are most certainly drafting among the best or the best players from their college teams.  So the captains thing isn't a big deal.   And the character stuff is also a bit overstated.  By the time most players are NFL ready they have their acts together, and contrary to borderline racist fantasies of various people, most do stay off the police blotter and out of the newspapers.  Sure some stuff gets whitewashed for star players, there's only been one Aaron Hernandez and a relatively few other guys you wouldn't want to have a beer with.

Anyway, without talent, all this character is useless.   Fortunately, the players they took are also productive and they also tested well, and they're all football players as opposed to projects.   So no worries that they took character to the exclusion of talent, which was a business they sort of got into in the late Tom Boisture era, when they started taking character guys who just didn't have NFL athleticism.  I don't know if that was sentimentality or what, but it was strange.  

So, contrary to this past weekend's storyline, most teams draft a bunch of team captains with admirable character.    The trick is getting guys who can play and that was the victory of this year's Giants draft.