What, you thought differential equations and intermediate microeconomics were gonna prevent me from running a mock draft? Y’all should know better by now. Anyway. Welcome to the Second Annual LothropSports Overthought NFL Mock Draft. I’ve done my best to grind tape and research as much as possible, but free time has been hard to come by. Nonetheless, I poured a lot of time and energy into this. Here’s how my annual Overthought Mock Draft works. I’ll project my picks for every team in their current draft spot, and only project a major trade I’m fairly sure will happen (spoiler alert: we will have one this year). I will probably make fun of your team’s front office in some capacity (sorry, New Yorkers who root for a team from New Jersey). No, you can’t get mad about it. For each pick, I’ll present the team’s needs and the player I project them to pick. My goal is to beat last year’s total of 6 correctly projected picks. Normally, online mocks project 6-10 picks correctly...
Roethlisberger in tears, via PennLive.com Count the number of occasions in your life you’ve witnessed a real, grown man cry publicly. Chances are, you can count on your fingers and fully recall each moment. It’s a rare event, and usually comes in one of the following forms: tears of sadness at a family funeral, tears of joy at a pivotal moment in life, or tears of pain from a really, really hard shot in the nuts. Now, it's even rarer that one witnesses a 6’5”, 240-pound man with a heavy beard and extensive PR training cry, unscripted, on national television. Sunday, America ticked off that box as they watched Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback and cornerstone Ben Roethlisberger get red-eyed on the home bench at Heinz Field. He sat stoically with his longtime center, Maurkice Pouncey, and stared at the logo in the middle of the field, unmoving. Contemplating his third career loss to the Cleveland Browns. Mulling over each of the 4 interceptions he threw. Agonizing over the ugliest of...