Ten things in sports that weren't nearly as important 10 years ago

NBA Summer League: It's fannnnnnnnn-tastic

The following are 10 sports-oriented events that are perceived to be more important today than they were one, five, 10, 20 or 50 years ago.

Although in specific instances the reasons why are deemed important vary from audience to audience, there are two very important factors that redeem them all: the Internet and ESPN.

Without either of them, these events would be afterthoughts. Actually, some of them are pretty important for a team or for the interest of the fan but due to broadband wireless and the World Wide Leader, everyone is tuned in -- actual important events are given their due and unimportant events are given undue coverage.

10. Trade Deadlines
This is pretty general to all sports, but it probably has a lot of more weight in baseball, hockey and basketball. The Internet itself has become such a giant tool in this front. Whereas fans used to just rant and rave and bloggers would float propositions and re-report what's in the newspapers, GMs and management use it gauge value, interest and reaction to deals. It's really quite extraordinary.

However, it snuck into No. 10 because trade deadlines have generally been a red-letter day for a while even before the Internet or ESPN's reign.

9. NFL Pre-Season
This came pretty readily to mind. Especially if you live in an NFL town and are currently wading through the billions of stories about how great this year's team is going to be. Dallas media are especially insufferable. Training camp, however, has always been pretty well reported on and hyped.

But with ESPN guys going around and Peter King visiting all the camps, bloggers going off and information at the tips of your fingers, it's pretty easy to keep up with happenings with video. The eight receivers battling for that fourth spot aren't as anonymous as they were five years ago. We know the fourth-string quarterback and we know how many kicks the back-up kicker missed in afternoon practice.

8. ESPYs
It takes a lot of gall to start your own awards show. But leave it to the World Wide Leader. This orgy has been a chic "place to be" for not only athletes of note, but actual celebrities. And it gets more and more coverage as the year goes on. I bet within the next five years, it's on ABC.

7. Super Bowl Pregame
The Super Bowl has tended to be more than a regular championship game. Between the commercials and halftime show, there is little left for an actual game. But greed has spurred the networks to work up the pre-game festivities, which usually start hours before kick-off and highlight groups and bands that are younger (or at least appeal to the younger audience). It's just another way for networks to sell advertising.

I'd also like to include the week before the Super Bowl in this spot, too. The buzz and hype has always been there, but now it's different. Coverage is instant and a lot more in depth and candid. Additionally, the media has a lot bigger role. In fact, the media is so aware of itself that it reports on its own doings. An interview with Rex Grossman isn't nearly as important as who was asking the questions. It's the one week when the national media are dreadfully self-aware.

6. MLB Minor Leagues
Really, MLB is a rare bird in the American sports landscape. Yeah, hockey has a minor league system but nobody like hockey. And the NBA has the NBDL, but it's too new and it's more like a place you can stash projects instead of develop young guys. Dudes who can ball generally make the team.

But it would probably be hard to find a Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, Florida Marlins or Houston Astros fan who knew their minor league systems inside and out, say, five or 10 years ago. Nowadays, box scores are available. Player bios and scouting reports are available to anyone with a laptop and a Whataburger. I can name three dozen more minor leaguers today than I could have three years ago.

5. NFL Supplemental Draft
Yahoo! actually had stories about this a month or so ago. Like anyone cares if the Chargers get some safety from Auburn who wasn't good enough to be drafted in the first place.

4. Signing Day
One day a year, high school athletic directors set up millions of tables and chairs to accomodate their amateur athletes who gather -- with their family and coaches -- to sign a letter of intent to a college. And there are about a million websites that could tell you about each and every one of those athletes and most couldn't buy a pack of cigarettes.

3. MLB Draft
In Michael Lewis' "Moneyball," he references the non-transperancy of MLB in reference to how the league disallowed statistics from being disseminated to the public. He -- tongue in cheek -- states that the league might as well have played the games in private. He also references how impersonal and private the MLB draft was. No more. I don't remember a MLB draft like the one this year.

People kept up with mock drafts and the actual picks like it was the NFL or NBA. Despite the fact that most of these kids won't make the team for another three years -- and some are 18-years-old and a month out of high school -- fans still get excited and take scouting reports as gospel. Which is pretty silly because Player A could blow out his elbow or completely forget out of throw strikes and never see Class AA.

2. NBA Summer League
Granted, this is a pretty new phenomena, but every summer rookies, undrafted free agents and young pros head to Sin City to essentially play playground ball.

It's one thing to have some kind of exhibition for management to work out guys. But scores and records are kept. Stats and averages are thrown around the Internet despite the fact that players get 10 fouls. Plus, there's little value, I think, in Mike Conley going for 27 a game in Vegas against undrafted guys from BYU and Montana State, when he had just did that for 50 games in college against the same guys. And what's more are the vets that play like Nate Robinson. What's the point? You made the team!

1. NFL Combine
This is the coup de grace of sports events that mean less, are incredibly boring and get more than it's fair share of coverage. When the combine takes place, there are an equal amount of stories in the media about how useless the workouts actually are. If a guy has a 4.4 40-yard dash, what does it matter if he can't run a route or if he's too small?

Players' values ebb and flow with their workouts, or even with their unwillingness to not do certain workouts. Calvin Johnson could not have played it better than skipping out on the 40, decided to participate at the last minute and footing a 4.4 in someone else's shoes, literally. It was legendary.

Again, there are a number of guys that have ruled the roost at combines, but done little in the NFL. Furthermore, it's offensive tackles running dashes and skipping rope. I tend to think this plays directly into the feeling that fans are just as good at evaluating talent as management. Of course, that's a common theme in all these events. Fans think they can do better; the media allows them to try, or pretend to at least.