Why is the signing of draft picks made news?

Schefter, ProFootballTalk, RapSheet, etc. have all been tweeting about several draft picks signing with the teams who just drafted them a week ago. How on earth is this redundant information considered "news"?

The only way this subject should become news is if a player still hasn't signed his contract 3 months from now.

Am I missing something?

Seriously?:

I feel the same way when the ESPY winners are announced.

Last time I checked the NFL is still the most popular in American sports. When pre-season nfl games pull more ratings than NBA or NHL playoffs games then it shouldn't really surprise any one why people care about every aspect of the nfl. It's the off-season and the most interesting things right now are the rookie signings. So. there you go.

Because it's something to get attention as miniscule as it is...

People want to know things about their team. If and when Jacoby signs I would be interested in knowing.

I think it's more or less just to keep track of the day they signed and how quickly they signed. I recall Hightower didn't sign his rookie deal until July in '12. Collins didn't sign his until a month later. Now guys are signing within a week after the draft.

For me, it's news because I know there will be no camp distracting hold outs.
I hate that ****!
Relief of the pending anxiety, is why it is news.

Also them tweeting out the details helps cap guys like Miguel give up to the minute cap numbers.

Low news week

I think there are a few reasons for these non-stories to be stories.

Part of it is a leftover from when a rookie signing was news, from back when holdouts and players missing training camp was not uncommon. Although that is no longer the case, it is simply habit at this point for members of the sports media to report this information.

That leads to a second reason: if Outlet X does not report a signing but Outlet Z does, then those that are for whatever reason interested are driven to the latter's website. The former (and their bosses) do not want to potentially lose part of their audience due to appearing to be asleep at the wheel. Although the number of newspapers has dwindled compared to fifty years ago, the number of sources for information on a topic (in this case the NFL and the Patriots) has increased dramatically. One has to both fast as well as highly informative to grow (or at least maintain) the number of readers (or viewers or listeners).

Perhaps the biggest reason is because sports, and the NFL in particular, has become a 365-day source of news stories; at this time of the year there is precious little to write about. Writing nothing at all - even if it is something relatively irrelevant - makes the writer and his site irrelevant to his audience.

TBR said:

Schefter, ProFootballTalk, RapSheet, etc. have all been tweeting about several draft picks signing with the teams who just drafted them a week ago. How on earth is this redundant information considered "news"?

The only way this subject should become news is if a player still hasn't signed his contract 3 months from now.

Am I missing something?

Seriously?:

Click to expand...

I agree. When drafted players are signed, teams should keep that fact a secret. The less those f###### Russkies know, the better...

I understand the spirit behind this thread, I have found myself skipping such news as they are a waste of time to read them. PFT's minnows have been frantically reporting such stories since Wednesday and it feels like lazy and uninspiring work.

why is this "news"? well, just to be brief so as not to get bogged down in a 1000 pages of cause/effect, let's just say it's "news" since "news" morphed into "entertainment" a few decades back. Sports meets People's Magazine rules the day!

Because a few years ago draft pick signings used to be truly negotiated and it's also the offseason. Social Media allows the 5 month + 1 week season to be extended to 12 months a year.

If a pin drops in BB's office Social Media will have a 3 page story. It's just modern times, wait til we have x-ray vision into coaches meetings in a few years, won't only be year round, it'll be 24h of new content each day of the year!

If you own your own channel to spew propaganda on your product, you need to fill the time and space with something, anything...

Not to be out done ESPN follows along and the *********** continues, meanwhile on Madison Ave., Roger gleefully plays with himself realizing that the NFL season never ends and the longer media exposure = more money.