ESPN's Bad Night

[Mizzougrad96]

I'm just waiting for Kiper and McShay to fight to the death. On one of the pregame shows they were shouting at each other over Clausen and this was before he wasn't picked.

Also, leave it to ESPN to ruin a good Jay-Z song.

I thought Gruden did a great job. I like Kiper and I think the correspondents who were spread across the country did a good job, but Berman was awful as usual. I actually thought Keyshawn was pretty good. He ripped Tebow a couple times which was refreshing.

 

[deskslave]

Kiper is their meal ticket on this. If you sent him over to NFL and they dropped their "Kiper" ESPN might as well televise the WNBA.

Kiper is damn good and what he does. ESPN has forgotten this.

Kiper hits .250 on his predictions - in a really good year. You'd do better flipping a coin. How'd he do last night? 7 for 32?

Of course, a coin has two sides, and there are rather more players than that in the draft pool.

 

[Azrael]

Yes, and the draft experts have only had a year to study up.

For each team that drafts after the #1 and #2 slots, choose two remaining players ranked likely to go in the first round and flip a coin. You'll be as accurate as Kiper. More accurate than McShay.

http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/Articles/11_3179_Kiper_the_klown:_our_annual_mock-draft_scorecard!.html

 

[Moderator1]

Did Gruden let a "dumb ass" slip or was I hearing things?

 

[Twoback]

My draft complaint -- since when is it OK to sit on the phone talking after the commissioner has called your name, or to spend 90 seconds entrenched in a hug with every single person in your entourage? It was disgusting how rude some of these guys were.
Get your behind up there and shake the commissioner's hand.
The Oscar winners get on stage faster, and not one of them can run a 4.4. 40.

 

[ucacm]

My draft complaint -- since when is it OK to sit on the phone talking after the commissioner has called your name, or to spend 90 seconds entrenched in a hug with every single person in your entourage? It was disgusting how rude some of these guys were.
Get your behind up there and shake the commissioner's hand.
The Oscar winners get on stage faster, and not one of them can run a 4.4. 40.

People get worked up over the strangest things.

 

[Boom_70]

My draft complaint -- since when is it OK to sit on the phone talking after the commissioner has called your name, or to spend 90 seconds entrenched in a hug with every single person in your entourage? It was disgusting how rude some of these guys were.
Get your behind up there and shake the commissioner's hand.
The Oscar winners get on stage faster, and not one of them can run a 4.4. 40.

People get worked up over the strangest things.

I thought the same thing. The whole event seemed out of sync. I think it seemed even longer because we saw the draftee taking team phone call. I always like to see the strange mix of entorage - from 300 lb Momma to Uncle Leroy.

 

[Oz]

Felt it was worth it's own thread. What a horrible draft night for ESPN. For the company that pioneered televised draft it was a precipitous drop off.

Most of night was unintended comedy.

For almost every pick it seemed like the ESPN team was the last to know.

Actually, one person on ESPN did know the picks seemingly five minutes before they happened -- Adam Schefter on Twitter.

 

[93Devil]

Kiper is their meal ticket on this. If you sent him over to NFL and they dropped their "Kiper" ESPN might as well televise the WNBA.

Kiper is damn good and what he does. ESPN has forgotten this.

Kiper hits .250 on his predictions - in a really good year. You'd do better flipping a coin. How'd he do last night? 7 for 32?

I don't care about his predictions. It's his breakdown of the player two seconds after you have the name that impresses me.

 

[playthrough]

Yeah, I will give Kiper that. It's pretty amazing. Though I also wonder if he can fall back on cliches like "he's got a good motor, can make plays, etc." to fudge it sometimes.

 

[Boom_70]

Seemed like Gruden loved every pick.

 

[93Devil]

ESPN needs to hire a guy with a screw-this-league,-I-am-never-coaching-again attitude.

 

[D-3 Fan]

Kiper is their meal ticket on this. If you sent him over to NFL and they dropped their "Kiper" ESPN might as well televise the WNBA.

Kiper is damn good and what he does. ESPN has forgotten this.

That was the overriding problem for me. ESPN gave Chucky so much air-time, Kiper and McShay was rendered useless. amreader, they didn't give Mel any opportunity to talk, as long as Gruden was running his flap.

Young is only good for a 20-second opinion, nothing more.

ESPN is making Chucky their meal ticket for this draft.

 

[Bubbler]

Seemed like Gruden loved every pick.

I watched maybe three picks live and it seemed Gruden was in orgasmic glee over all of them. When did he become Admiral Positive?

 

[Second Thoughts]

And like I complained on the draft thread, couldn't ESPN had not shown the players in the green room with the phones to the teams?

By the time Goodell would make the announcment, everyone knew, and there was no suspense.

The NFL Network was guilty of that at times too.

When I watched it was on NFL Network (thank you to my new DirecTV). Anything to let me avoid ESPN coverage of anything.

I flipped to ESPN briefly during a commercial just to compare and realized I couldn't have stomached those guys for long. I was happy with the NFL Network's coverage and they were spot on with every pick right before it was announced. You don't have to wait for the name to come out of Goodell's mouth for suspense of who will be picked next. I thought the idea was to see who was going to be drafted. Instead of ESPN missing the boat and then trying to make out like it's the pick that shocked the world when they're wrong. And Kiper was way off about Clausen. His credibility should take a big hit.

 

[cwilson3]

Seemed like Gruden loved every pick.

I watched maybe three picks live and it seemed Gruden was in orgasmic glee over all of them. When did he become Admiral Positive?

Since he was auditioning for every opening this coming offseason.

 

[Brian]

My friends and I were openly rooting for Tom Jackson to slug both Steve Young and Jon Gruden, take a bow, and then walk off the stage to the applause of Radio City Music Hall.

 

[Kato]

The segment before the Vikings pick -- before they traded it -- was priceless. Suddenly, it became what sounded like a drunken bar argument about Brett Favre. Then, Berman kept cutting everybody off, saying no way Minny takes a QB because it might make Favre mad. It almost sounded like ESPN didn't want to make Favre mad by even talking about the possibility.

By the way, it wouldn't hurt the Vikings to take a play out of the Packers playbook and draft a QB for the future, even if Favre is coming back. Just sayin'. Not sure why the ESPN crew was so afraid of even suggesting that. Young was trying but they wouldn't let him talk.

 

[Bodie_Broadus]

Mike Mayock and Kiper have pretty much the same job. Mike Mayock is far, far better at it than Kiper.

 

[Boom_70]

Young barely got to talk and when he did it usually made sense.

When Tebow was drafted it would seem logical to go to a lefty running QB first - but no.
When he finally spoke he made sense. He said he told Tebow not to worry too much about arm angle and just be himself. Said no one throws the same way.