I'll be the first to admit I watched probably one minute of last weekend's NFL draft.

Hopefully, my Mel Kiper Jr. Fan Club membership won't be revoked, but it was way too nice to sit in front of the tube.

After two months of buildup and speculation, plus an additional five hours five hours! of a pre-draft preview show on ESPN, I just can't invest that kind of time anymore.

Perhaps knowing the Steelers wouldn't pick until more than five hours into the draft was the main reason to stay away.

I did come in from outside to get an update. At about 5:30 p.m. Saturday, the draft, which started at 4 p.m. was only on pick No. 12.

I'm sure the NFL wanted to push the envelope by starting later in the day as opposed to the usual time of noon. Maybe they wanted to give teams more time to trade picks, secure deals or add extra time for the No. 1 pick to sign ahead of the draft.

Or maybe going into the evening would tap into that all-important prime-time viewing schedule, which would be a big boon for NFL-driven networks like ESPN and, oh, yeah, the NFL Network. The draft would be a better draw than say, "Super Bowl Memories" or "Top 10 Rivalries."

Instead, the monstrosity of this event has gotten so big, that picking players and missing the mark is all right even if you miss a few.

One pundit's miss at a spot, say like the Oakland Raiders' No. 7 pick of wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, was enough to change the flow of everyone else's pick. So all the mock drafts, which were changing nearly every day in the weeks leading up to the draft, were deemed useless.

Even the New York Jets, who finally did something right to trade up from No. 17 to No. 5 and draft a potential franchise quarterback in Southern Cal's Mark Sanchez, made a move that shook everything up.

The only other time I checked in with the draft on Saturday was when I drove up the street for ice cream. I caught about 30 seconds of it on the radio, which was just before 7 p.m.

I didn't know who the Steelers picked until I watched the 10 p.m. news: a defensive tackle from Missouri named Evander Hood. My first thought was "Is that Ziggy?" which it was, but his name was not one of the six or seven I've seen in the mock drafts.

I understand he will be a work in progress, but could be a great player in the right system, which he could be with Pittsburgh.

My thinking was Pittsburgh would trade up to get a bigger star and trade a second- and/or third-round pick as well as their 32nd pick overall, but they traded around to gain three third-rounders.

Sunday turned out to be a yardwork day, so I just waited until later in the evening to see who the Steelers added.

It looked like a solid, if not spectacular, draft, but we'll wait it and see how things pan out just like the mock drafts and waiting until the end to see what transpired.

Sam Tallarico is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.