My Italian great-grandparents told me that in the old days, the chicken wings we all eat with regularity were thought of as nothing more than scraps. A perceived disgusting morsel maybe best served to the family dog. No one wanted them and the wings simply went to the trash.

Now they’re a billion dollar business and share a strange association with another topic – The NFL draft and its little brother on the rise, the NFL Scouting Combine.

Both these identities were once viewed like chicken wings. They both held little value in the grand scheme of things in the NFL, but now they are a recipe for success to keep the NFL in the spotlight all year around. The league’s ability to capitalize on our nations unquenchable thirst for professional football and both the NFL Draft and Scouting Combine weren’t always in vogue.

The humble beginnings of the first NFL Draft were held February 8, 1936 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia. Before the creation of the draft, owners would just bid on the players heading to the NFL. The deeper pocketed owners held all the cards. The first NFL Draft didn’t end the shenanigans amongst the teams but it did bring some much needed order into the fray. The first player selected back in 1936 was Jay Berwanger, and he was the first of the 81 players selected that year. From that point, the draft started to emerge and take shape with each year bringing new concepts and rules.

“You have to go back to the late 50’s and 60’s.” says former Dallas Cowboys Vice President of Player Personnel Gil Brant who currently works for Sirius NFL Radio Network.

Brandt was one of the pioneers putting together what we all know as the NFL Draft.

“Rolls of quarters,” said Brandt. “In those days you had pay phones and no credit cards.”

He explained it was vital that a scout had plenty of change in his pocket to get information back to team headquarters.

“A guy would place a call to a guy like Pappy Lewis (Art Lewis, West Virginia head coach from 1950-1959) and say ‘Pappy we want to draft a tackle, you got one on your team or played against?’”

It was not until the NFL and AFL merged in 1970 that the tricks pulled by each league truly ceased to continue. Prior to the merger, both the NFL and AFL used all means possible to get a guy signed to their team. There were secret drafts held in November. The Houston Oilers were awarded a player because he played near Houston and the stories go on and on.

It wasn’t until 1980 that ESPN would air the first NFL draft. The story told says commissioner Pete Rozelle asked ESPN, “Why would you want to cover that?”

The draft simply wasn’t on anyone’s radar. The results were published deep in the pages of local newspapers with little interest. Over time, the draft continued to grow and fans waited anxiously overnight to receive a first-come, first-serve ticket into the annual event held in New York City. The NFL even rewarded the fans that stayed until the final pick due to the exhausting nature of the full seven rounds. If you could make it through the eternity of NFL Draft you didn’t have to wait in line the next season for a ticket.

That old way of doing things is all gone.

In 2010, the league scrapped the two-day weekend NFL Draft marathon and brought in a shorter, more compact event ready for primetime television. The idea would have seemed utterly ridiculous that the opportunity one day might actually present itself where you had to decide between watching the NFL Draft and Grey’s Anatomy. I guess it is the same kind of crazy my grandparents had to think when restaurant chains devoted to selling chicken wings popped up all over the United States. The NFL condensed the picks, taking the first round from 15 minutes down to 10. The first round is now exclusively a Thursday night event with the second and third rounds on Friday night. The day that once began the draft now ends it with Saturday holding the final rounds between the fourth and seventh.

The NFL Scouting Combine is the next event the NFL wants desperately to capitalize on, but like the NFL Draft (and chicken wings) it too was once an event that no one cared about. Back in 1982 the National Invitational Camp (NIC) was held in Tampa, Florida, which was originated by the National Football Scouting, Inc. It was a means for member NFL teams to look at NFL prospects. The NIC was renamed the NFL Scouting Combine, and some 30 years later it is one of the new kids on the block to help the NFL cure our craving for America’s new pastime.

“I don’t think there is any doubt their (NFL) going to sell tickets,” said Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians from the NFL Scouting Combine. “Scouts will be pissed (joking) about the noise. I remember 20 years ago there was no one here. This is a big time deal.”

So now the NFL Draft’s little brother, the NFL Scouting Combine is slowly being worked into the mainstream media. A NFC South scout at the Senior Bowl who asked to go unnamed said, “They (NFL) definitely want that,” referring to the theory the NFL wants to take the combine up a notch. He said he had no problem if they begin allowing fans into the event.

The NFL has already experimented with fans being in the stands at the combine. Now more than ever you better believe the NFL is closely gauging their next move on how to incorporate the Combine into something more viewer friendly for both television and live fans at the event. Possibly just a matter of time before the NFL Scouting Combine has a place on primetime television.

More ironic is the likelihood that a lot of people watching the NFL Draft or NFL Scouting Combine will be doing so while eating those delicious chicken wings.