I know this is a sports law site, but with the NFL draft just concluded, we will lean a little more to the sports and agent biz than the law biz for one day. For years now, the final player selected in the NFL draft earns the title of Mr. Irrelevant. The award dates back to 1976 when the draft was 17 rounds.

But lets consider that slightly more than 300 players are invited to the NFL combine every year, and that the draft is now reduced to seven rounds. This year there were 256 players drafted, which means that a large group of players who are selected for the combine were not drafted at all. When you factor in the signing bonus, a 7^th round pick will receive between $20,000 and $40,000. Being drafted at the end of the last round means that a player has a 50% chance to make an NFL roster, or at least a very good chance to make a practice squad. Irrelevant?

If you really want to talk about who is irrelevant, you've got to look at the many players who are not even signed as non-drafted free agents after the draft. There are probably close to a couple hundred or more who are invited in to NFL teams' mini-camps after the draft as unsigned players. Out of this group many NFL teams will sign one or two for their 80 man roster. Usually they get no signing bonus, and sign the standard NFL contract for the rookie minimum. Compare these players, who get little more than a plane ticket to attend mini- camp, to those selected in the first round with seven and eight figure signing bonuses.  That's how you’ll find “Mr. Irrelevant”.