Because of a great marketing machine that has made the NFL as ubiquitous as Starbucks, construction along the Pennsylvania Turnpike and terrible reality TV shows, the league never quite disappears from the public's consciousness at any time of the year.

It's an amazing Jedi mind trick, getting people to obsess over mini-camps and draft combines and whether a guy will be a pre- or post-June 1 cut --- in the big picture, very silly stuff that isn't worth obsessing over unless you're actually personally involved in the mini-camp, draft combine or pre- or post-June 1 cut. And it also gets people to look ahead to a draft that won't occur for another 52 weeks.

And while I try to avoid the league more than most, it is impossible to ignore it completely when you cover a guy who is quickly being adorned as a possible first-round pick next year: Maryland wideout Darrius Heyward-Bey.

I've been around when Hey-Bey has been asked about the pros, and his replies are so much out of the "saying the right thing" vein that I don't have any of them on hand --- they just aren't worth transcribing because they are exactly what you would expect him to say. He'll need to stock up on variations of "saying the right thing," since it appears the 6-foot-2, 206-pound junior will receive plenty such questions in the next nine months.

Other people are talking plenty about Heyward-Bey. In just the last week or so, this stuff has popped up:

* SI named him as one of a dozen first-rounders for next year.

* Draftking.com has Hey-Bey as a No. 5 overall selection to San Francisco. It's amazing someone is actually projecting which draft position each team will assume, and then who they will draft/be in need of a year from now.

* NFLdraftwatch.net sends Heyward-Bey to Chicago at No. 16. At least this guy just based his draft order on the reverse of the Vegas odds to win the Super Bowl.

* Collegefootballnews.com doesn't list him as a first-rounder. He is, however, the No. 3-ranked wideout behind Florida's Percy Harvin and Texas Tech's efficient Michael Crabtree.

* Rivals.com figures Heyward-Bey to be the No. 14 pick to Houston, behind Crabtree but well ahead of Harvin.

Of course, all of this is meaningless. Three months ago, Maryland fans figured linebacker Erin Henderson was leaving to become a third- or fourth-round pick and he went undrafted. Lots of things can happen to Heyward-Bey in the next year, from getting injured to rolling up a 1,000-yard season, from being stuck in an inert offense that juggles quarterbacks to being the centerpiece of a team that contends for an ACC title. Oh, and maybe Heyward-Bey will stick around for his senior year, too.

No matter how it plays out, Hey-Bey will have some hype to contend with along the way.

--- Patrick Stevens