The NFL, in its latest move of screwing its most hardcore fans in the chase for more television money, is restructuring the schedule of its annual Draft. The seven rounds of the 2010 Draft will be stretched over three days, a schedule that will include holding the first round on Thursday night.

The NFL said Thursday that the first round will begin at 7:30 p.m. EDT on April 22. The second and third rounds will start at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, with the last four rounds beginning Saturday morning. via.

Great. Thanks, NFL, for taking away my greatest spring drinking day of the year. How am I supposed to get out of bed for the fourth round? The fact is that instead of adding casual fans to the telecasts on ESPN and NFL Network in a prime-time spot, they’re forcing the more serious fan to choose between watching the draft or watching their regular Thursday night shows.

No, but the cable networks will go to the advertisers and point to the 39 million people that watched last year and get paid by advertisers for that expected audience. This is really just a big c-cktease from the NFL; hopefully this experiment will fall short of what the suits are hoping and I can resume my regular drinking schedule for 2011.