- [Will] If I said you have 10 minutes
to decide what's for dinner,
could you handle that?
Like, how are you under timed pressure?
- [Clara] Choosing your last meal,
you want more than 10 minutes.
Choosing what's for dinner tonight,
sure, I could do that in 10 seconds.
Thai food.
- See, there is something weird about 10 minutes,
where it is either an eternity,
or it goes by in a flash.
- Yeah, if it's like can you do this math problem
in 10 minutes?
It's like, we're gonna need some more time.
- I mean, I can give you an answer
to that very quickly,
and it is no, I cannot.
In the NFL draft,
in the first round,
every team gets 10 minutes to make a pick.
- Seems like 10 minutes is almost too much time for that.
It's like, you're prepared.
I guess there's some buffer minutes in there
for if your pen breaks.
- And there's months leading up to that
where you can go through player profiles
and scout them,
and have a good feel for who you're
going to select,
but then once the draft itself happens,
your time on the clock is 10 minutes.
Which naturally brings up the question of,
what happens if a team runs out of time?
And the NFL has a rule just to make sure
that teams know what to do when that happens.
Basically what it says is,
if a team runs out of time,
they do not lose their pick.
But other teams are allowed to pick ahead of them.
And it's up to that team to just
get the pick in once they have it,
and they can kind of slot in anywhere.
- So it's like, if you don't take your 10 minutes,
no big deal,
it just spins everything into chaos,
(laughing) and the fastest person
gets the next guy.
- [Will] So the way that it traditionally works,
is the team decides on a player,
they call their representative
who's there at the draft,
they write that player down on a card,
and they give it to a runner
who then turns it in.
Once the runner has it,
they're like, "Cool,
pick is in,
move on to the next team."
- Great. Simple. Fun.
- But in 2003, the Vikings with the 7th overall pick,
they just didn't pick somebody.
And their time ran out.
- They were aware it was their turn?
- They were extremely aware that it
was their turn. (laughing)
So here's what happened.
7th overall pick.
They knew who they wanted,
they said, "Why don't we try to trade back?
We can still get this guy,
but what if we pick up a few extra draft choices
in the process?
Win win". - Yeah.
- So they were talking to the Ravens
and the Jaguars.
The Jaguars had the pick right after them.
And the Ravens had the 10th pick.
Both teams wanted the same player.
So the Vikings were in a nice place of,
"We have exactly what they want,
and we'll move back and still get our guy.
We're certain we're gonna be able
to get our guy".
They agree to a deal with the Ravens.
They were gonna get a 4th and a 6th round pick.
Move back to the 10th spot,
be totally good.
They called the league to let them know,
"Hey, talked to Baltimore,
they're cool with it,
we're cool with it,
here's the deal".
And then they kinda kicked their feet up
and waited for Baltimore to call in their side
and verify with the League.
- [Clara] Great, let the celebration begin.
Mission accomplished.
- Right! (laughing)
But here's where a second rule
comes into play,
that seems pretty obvious.
In order for a trade to go through,
both teams have to call it in.
To basically prevent one team
from just being like,
"No, we swear,
they said they would send us everything".
- Yeah, "And they made us the point person,
so we'll do the calling,
and just make sure we get the guy," yeah.
- The Ravens, did not get in touch
with the league to say,
"Hey, here's the trade". - Uh oh.
- So the moment that the clock hit zero,
the Jaguars, with the 8th pick,
who were also in trade talks with them,
who also were aware the Ravens
were trying to jump up,
they saw the clock hit zero,
and so they just turned in their pick.
- Yeah, you snooze you lose.
Classic rhyme.
(laughing)
- So the Jaguars turned in their pick,
and that is how they wound up drafting Byron Leftwich.
And according to the NFL rules,
now the Vikings could just do their thing.
But the Panthers also were watching what happened.
And they had the next pick,
so they immediately turned their pick in,
and took Jordan Gross.
Who wound up being an incredible offensive lineman
for them for like a decade.
And then, finally the Vikings were like,
"Oh yeah, let's turn in our name".
- Why? (laughing)
- So what it essentially wound up being was,
they went from the 7th pick to the 9th pick,
without getting anything in return.
In real time, the Jaguars,
the Panthers, the Vikings,
and then the Ravens,
made all four picks within four minutes.
Because they were just busting ass
to get up there.
- Yeah, you'd think that that sense
of urgency would be felt across the board.
I guess it's so strange that one team
would be so unaware of the clock,
while the other ones are so on top of it.
(laughing)
- For sure!
And I think what that probably was caused by,
is it seemed like they were really upset
with the Ravens.
So the next day,
when the Vikings head coach Mike Tice,
he was talking to a ton of Vikings fans.
They were just booing the shit out of him.
(laughing)
- [Clara] Good talk, good talk.
- [Will] He was like, "No,
we got our guy, I swear!
We totally got the guy we wanted,
we didn't screw this up.
And also, we had a deal in place
with the Ravens,
they just didn't call it in.
It's on them!"
He also used the word "consummated,"
which kinda just sucks. - Aw, yeah.
You don't go out of your way
to use "consummated". (laughing)
- Yeah, get a thesaurus. - Unless you're bragging
about something very specific,
which I don't think he was.
So did the Ravens sabotage the Vikings?
- I'm not gonna rule that out yet.
But here's what they said.
The Ravens owner came out and was like,
"Look, the deal was not consummated!".
He also used that word.
- Once it's in the air,
you can't not. (laughing)
- They claimed to have called the league,
and gotten a busy signal.
- Wait what year did you say it was?
- 2003.
- So... wait.
Why does the NFL still have busy signals?
Especially when everyone's going
to be calling them.
Like, shouldn't call waiting,
or multiple lines? (laughing)
It's also funny that the Ravens didn't call back again.
It's like, "Well we got a busy signal,
so that deal is dead". (laughing)
Could it be possible that the Ravens
went through this whole thing,
and then just didn't call to just be super mean?
- [Will] And just said, "Busy signal".
- Yeah, "Sorry, busy signal.
We tried. Idiots".
And then they laugh, laugh.
- Could the Jaguars have been just spamming
that one number, (laughing)
and caused the busy signal themselves?
There's just a lot of territory
for theoretical sabotage.
- Right, if it hasn't been done yet,
it should be.
Use the weapons at your disposal.
It's all part of the game.
- I really hope Belichick sees this.
- He'd be the one. - Yep.