Welcome to The Only Story in Town, where you get one great business story, every week. We look at how great institutions were built, why others failed, and the people, decisions and rivalries that changed everything.
Our story this week: The ultimate accountable decision
“Every year someone comes out of this looking like a donkey,” Sonny Weaver Jr says. “I got a feeling it could be you if you don’t make this deal.”
Jeff Carson, who is on the other side of the phone, mulls his options. He is new in his job. He really doesn’t want to look like a donkey. He makes the deal.
The room around Weaver goes crazy. They think he is mad. Then the owner barges in. “You son of a bitch,” he shouts. “Sonny, you’re a dead man.” Weaver is going to be sacked. He has clearly lost the plot.
But then there is a twist.
Weaver gets straight on the phone and sells what he has just bought from Carson for a much higher price. It is masterful deal-making. He knew what he was doing all along. Weaver is a genius.
Unfortunately we will never know how this deal worked out for everyone.
That is because this is a scene from Draft Day, a movie about the NFL draft. Sonny Weaver Jr is being played by Kevin Costner and he has just bought and sold the sixth pick in the draft.
Draft Day turns the NFL draft into a Hollywood movie. The draft is perfect for Hollywood - it is all about a single dramatic decision that defines everything - who will you pick? It is a decision that can define your year, even your life.
Unlike in Draft Day, in real life we get to see how these decisions play out too. For the general manager of an NFL team, who is the executive responsible for making the pick, it is the ultimate accountable decision. If it is wrong - and the player they choose isn’t very good - they will lose their job. This will happen to those making picks in the 2026 draft, which started on Thursday night.
But the draft also shows something else about big decisions - they don’t matter as much as we think they do.
