2013 NFL Draft coverage

Watching Kiper talk just makes me laugh, mostly because he's almost always wrong.

I saw on Twitter that the NFL/ESPN reached an agreement not to leak the picks via twitter. Last year Schefter, Mort, etc would tweet the pick before Goodell released it - i'm kind of glad they did this.

 

All we need to know about Mel Kiper is summed up nicely in this thread from before free agency starter:

http://www.gotitans.com/threads/sigh-mel-kiper.86378/

The ESPN draft coverage has not been the same since they mysteriously fired Paul Zimmerman during a commercial break for the 1989 draft. According to Zimmerman here is what happened:

I used do the draft for ESPN. Yep, I'd be right up there on the anchor desk with Joe Theismann and Chris Berman, and one year ... it must have been '88 or '89 ... Chris asked the question: "What will the player of the '90s be like?"
The cliché answers floated around for a while -- "Bigger, faster, stronger," and so forth. But I was always looking for the unusual, so when it was my turn I said, "The player of the '90s will be so sophisticated that he'll be able to pass any steroid test they come up with."

Ooooh! Hoisted skirts and eeek all around. I was waiting for someone to ask me what I meant, and then I'd say, harking back to something the East German track coach told me in an unguarded moment during the 1976 Olympics, that the masking agents were running way ahead of the drug testing, which was having a hard time catching up.

I never got a chance. Both my confreres said, "Well, I'm not touching that one," and right after my remark we went to commercial. When we came back I was off the set. The switchboard had lit up like a pinball machine. And thus ended my career at ESPN.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/dr_z/04/20/zimmerman.draftmemories/index.html

 

I like ESPN's format, but Kiper and Gruden wear you out LOL. I'll flip back and forth between ESPN and NFLN

 

I hate that the picks are revealed before the commissioner announces the pick. I understand that the TV producers wanna have highlight footage ready for when the pick is called but can't it just wait a little bit until after the picks are officially announced. I prefer to be somewhat shocked.

 

ESPN radio does a better job. I think TJ is onto something with turning down the sound. Turn down the sound on the TV and turn up the radio.

 

Radio? What is this 1994?

 

You can stream it on the internet if that makes you feel better

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/index

I believe it is also available on satellite radio.

 

Last year I had to work so that's where I listened to it. I enjoyed it but I hated that their ticker revealed the pick before Goodell announced it. That's that sh!+ I don't like.

 

Jon Gruden's there to make everybody feel good. He loves every pick and this guy is a competitor who every coach would love to have