I don’t keep very close tabs on celebrity gossip unless it involves Mark Sanchez and/or fast food. So this story pertains to my interests.

According to People magazine, Sanchez was spotted eating In-n-Out Burgers with Hayden Panettiere, who recently split from Ukrainian heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. But despite earlier reports of canoodling, a source insists Sanchez and Panettiere are not dating. Because there are apparently anonymous sources for stuff like this.

With a lockout looming, Sanchez was savvy enough to load up highlights after the season to his laptop to use precisely for this camp. He structured a plan by using concepts in an old Jets playbook before adding some new elements. He made copies for each of the 14 teammates who showed up. With no contact with teams allowed, he called agents, uncles and anybody else he could think of to make sure rookies such as Jeremy Kerley received an invitation. “He sounds like a coach in the meeting rooms, telling everybody what to do, what to expect,” said LaDainian Tomlinson. “Even watching film, he sounds like a coach.”

– Manish Mehta, N.Y. Daily News.

Well that’s pretty awesome. I think mental preparation — studying the playbook, understanding the offense and defense, analyzing film, communicating — is more important in football than in any other major sport. So good thing Mark Sanchez worked the phones this offseason.

I remember being disappointed when the Jets drafted Vernon Gholston, thinking he was a mere workout wonder, the type of guy that would never pan out. He didn’t. But then I remember being disappointed when they drafted D ‘Brickashaw Ferguson, thinking they were favoring a local guy over the skill-position players they needed. Now he is great, a cornerstone of a very good offensive line.

I don’t remember thinking much of anything when they picked Darrelle Revis, just sort of shrugging or something. Now he is one of the best players in the NFL.

Tonight the Jets will draft some guy, and some people will love it and others will hate it. Analysts in ridiculous suits will bark that he is a great pick or a not-so-great pick, then show 30 seconds’ worth of game footage to justify their stances.

And yeah, maybe some of those guys really put in the time and effort researching and watching footage and figuring out which young athletes seem most likely to become productive professional football players, but no one really knows. Where were the draft gurus on Tom Brady? Kurt Warner?

Of athletes in all the major sports, football players’ success is most dependent on their teammates and their coaches. There are likely running backs with all the skills to to succeed in the NFL who will go undrafted tonight because they had crappy offensive lines or played in systems that didn’t feature their talents. Quarterbacks will be overlooked because they had receivers that couldn’t run routes. Linebackers will be ignored because they played behind tackles that couldn’t prevent opposing linemen from reaching the second level.

It’s all a crapshoot. Teams make a series of educated guesses, then in September we find out if they were good ones. But the bluster around the draft has grown, for me at least, intolerable.

The NFL should be credited for a hype machine that can turn even the announcing of the schedule into prime-time TV, but there’s a breaking point. And a multiple-day American Idol buzzfest scheduled up against actual Major League Baseball games — things that count, real sports — is more than I can bear.