CLEVELAND, Ohio -- ‘The Drive’ in 1986 ended with the Denver Broncos driving down the field in the final minutes of the AFC Championship game to defeat the Cleveland Browns. ‘The Drive’ in 2021 will end with Cleveland driving to the bank with an estimated $ 100 million in revenue, after beating out Denver, among other cities, to host the 2021 NFL Draft.

The third time was the charm for Cleveland when the NFL announced that the city had been chosen as the site of the 2021 Draft, after being a finalist to host the 2019 and 2020 Drafts.

Hosting the NFL Draft is what Joe Biden would call “a big f---ing deal!" President Donald Trump would agree with Biden that it’s “YUGE!”

Nashville, which hosted the last NFL Draft, earned $132.8 million. An estimated 600,000 attended and 47 million watched the 2019 draft on television. The draft has had a bigger audience than the Major League Baseball and NBA All-Star games, which Cleveland will also host, this summer for the MLB, and in 2022 for the NBA.

Next to hosting the Super Bowl or being in it and winning, the draft is the biggest NFL event. Just as the chances were good that Cleveland would be picked to host the 2021 draft, the chances are also good that Cleveland could be hosting the event as Super Bowl Champions or participants. At the very least, the team will likely be drafting low in 2021.

Cleveland’s bid for the NFL Draft was a team effort quarterbacked by David Gilbert, CEO of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission. Gilbert had also helped lead the efforts that brought the 2016 Republican National Convention to Cleveland.

Previous bids by Cleveland for the draft were made in concert with the city of Canton and the Canton Pro Football Hall of Fame. This year, Cleveland and the Browns made their bid without Canton, and that likely was a factor in finally winning. Draft participants having to travel back and forth between Cleveland and Canton for events over three days was reportedly considered a drawback of the previous bids.

As the birthplace of professional football, Canton obviously also would be a deserving host of the NFL Draft by itself, but co-hosting with Cleveland would be as impractical as thought.

It’s little known that Cleveland and Canton also had a shared history with the legendary Canton Bulldogs. A version of the team, the Cleveland Bulldogs, won the NFL Championship in the 1920′s. After ownership changes, the fragments of the Canton and Cleveland Bulldogs ended up becoming the New York Giants.

David Gilbert’s performance as CEO of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission has been so good for so long, maybe he should be drafted to run for Mayor of Cleveland or Cuyahoga County Executive? We’ve seen ‘The Fumble’ replayed in local politics too many times for too long.