What a huge weekend of sports we just enjoyed.

You had the National Football League draft, the National Hockey League and National Basketball Association playoffs, as well as one of NASCAR’s most notorious races at Talladega Speedway.

There was a lot of channel surfing at my house as I tried to keep up with all that was going on.

My main focus was on the draft as I do not have any teams in the NHL or NBA playoff, nor do I really care what is going on in NASCAR right now.

It has become a tradition at my house that I sit down and devour nearly the entire first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday night once I get home from covering high school sports.

I really do not know why I pay that much attention to the first round because it seems like there are as many busts as booms.

The bulk of most teams are built on the third and fourth rounds, while the final three rounds a team might find a diamond in the rough.

My favorite part of draft weekend is getting up the following day and scrolling through the numerous draft report cards that are issued by it seems like everyone.

I look to see how our local teams — Detroit, Chicago and Indianapolis — fare. Draft grades vary by publication, so I try to get a broad group of these stories and try to come up with a consensus of how those teams do.

I also keep an eye on where players go from Notre Dame, Michigan and Michigan State.

After all, they are the three teams that garner the most attention in our area.

I always look for Mid-American Conference players as well. They do not have to be from Western Michigan or Central Michigan.

I am always amazed at how many players get drafted from MAC schools. It is not that I do not believe they have the same quality of kids there, but they do not get the recognition nationally that the “big time” schools do.

Scouts are amazing. They find these kids, no matter what the size of the school, and get them on their teams with the hopes of building a championship squad.

I also like to check the free agent signings because you never know, there might just be a player from our area that we have all heard of that is going to get a shot to make a pro team.

It does not happen often, but from time to time, one of “our” kids get his shot.

Somewhere between the second and seventh rounds I usually start flipping stations to check out the other sports.

But I always come back on the third day in the final 15 minutes of the draft to see who “Mr. Irrelevant” is.

This has become one of my favorite parts of the draft.

Someday I would love to get out to California and take in the celebration of the draft’s last pick. I bet it is quite the spectacle.

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com