Drafts as selection spectacles

Large, festival‑like attendance at player drafts (805,000 at the 2026 NFL draft) shows sports fandom is shifting from watching performance to watching selection. The draft is becoming a public ritual where status, scouting narratives, and identity politics play out more than the games themselves. — If selection ceremonies supplant performance as the site of social meaning, that reshapes meritocratic narratives, status signaling, and race/ability politics across culture and institutions.