‘The great American crapshoot’: How Bert Bell saved the NFL with the draft

Bert Bell talks to the Philadelphia Eagles during his time as the team’s head coach. His son Bert Jr sits on a player’s lap. Photograph: AP

The NFL draft, which starts on Thursday, has become a spectacular, three-day, wall-to-wall TV blowout watched by millions. But Upton Bell insists that its basic appeal has not changed all that much since the first draft was held 86 years ago.

“It’s the great American crapshoot,” Bell tells the Guardian from his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, referring to the uncertain future of any draftee – or the team that drafts him.