You can draw a direct
line from the 1994 NFL Draft to today’s sports media landscape. It all changed that
day.
As soon as
then-Colts general manager Bill Tobin said those words, the sports
media world changed. The NFL changed. The
NFL Draft changed. ESPN changed.
In fact, Mel
Kiper’s entire existence was to troll the football
establishment. He wasn’t a general manager or a coach – he was just a guy
who watched a lot of game film. He was now giving out evaluations of players
that, by virtue of his presence at the ESPN announce desk, gave him
credibility.
The NFL Draft was
the perfect venue for trolling – and still is – because there is no immediate
way to prove whether you’re right or wrong. Literally, everything about the
event is conjecture. The mock drafts beforehand. The grades afterwards. They’re
all meaningless.
Last year, Todd McShay
ripped the Jets for drafting a guy who would turn out to be the Rookie of
the Year. McShay is still an ESPN expert in 2014.
In 2010, Mel
Kiper said Jimmy Clausen was a Top 5 talent and staked
his job that Clausen would be an NFL starter. Clausen is out of the league.
Kiper is still an ESPN expert in 2014.
How we got here
started back during that 1994 NFL Draft – a relatively quaint ceremony compared
to today’s bloated excess. It took place on a weekend afternoon. It did not
dwarf the ratings of the NBA playoffs. It didn’t dominate news cycle after news
cycle.
Then Mel Kiper
opened his mouth and ripped the Colts for drafting Trev Alberts over Trent
Dilfer. Kiper also, less famously, said, “You can’t win with Jim Harbaugh.”
That would be the future Captain Comeback who led the Colts to
the brink of the Super Bowl in 1995.
But it was Tobin
who broke the golden rule – Do Not Feed the Trolls.
“Who the hell is
Mel Kiper?”
With that one
question, Tobin gave Mel Kiper life. Kiper is still employed today because of
that moment. He had successfully lodged himself under the skin of a NFL general
manager. It was the moment Kiper had been waiting for. When people think of the
NFL Draft, Kiper’s back and forth with Tobin is usually their first memory,
which is amazing since so few people actually saw it happen. It lives on
through video and replays.
Even the NFL,
during its largely uninspiring look back at past drafts, took such glee in
recounting the encounter during its look at the 1994 NFL Draft. Remember, this
a draft in which the Bengals
passed on Marshall Faulk for Dan Wilkinson! How is that not a Oden over
Durant debacle? And it was Tobin who picked Faulk!
Nope. Relegated
to the sidelines. All we can focus on Kiper and Tobin bickering.
ESPN, for most of
its existence until 1994, had let the sports and the athletes take the
spotlight. Even the stars of the day – the Big Show and Kenny Mayne
– were stars because of how they delivered the highlights.
Mel Kiper was the
first ESPN personality that existed outside the vortex of athletic competition.
He wasn’t an announcer or a color commentator. He wasn’t an interviewer or an
anchor. He was the guy who stirred up shit before the NFL Draft.
It’s not like the
notion that controversy causes cash was new in 1994, but it felt like the light
bulb went off for everyone.
Over the course
of the next 20 years, the sports media has morphed from covering stories to
becoming stories. The introduction of the Internet further this change and
social media made it easy for anyone to troll everybody on a daily basis.
If you ever spend
a weekday at home with ESPN – as I did a couple weeks back as my dog recovered
from surgery – you will be fed a day-long feast of trolling. The NFL Draft is
an excuse for ESPN talking heads to bicker for months. The NBA playoffs are reason
to defame Kevin Durant or mock Chris Paul.
I don’t want to
feed the trolls but, unfortunately, I don’t have to. They are ubiquitous now.
You can see them in your head without me mentioning them.
The guy who
hates on RG3.
The guy who still
rails on John Wall for a pregame dance nearly FOUR years ago.
The guy who
trolls SEC fan bases.
The guy who
trolls Teddy Bridgewater.
The guy who
trolls Johnny Manziel.
Okay, so that
last one is any NFL “expert” looking to get some retweets.
They’re all
chasing Mel Kiper because he set the standard. One act of trolling and one
willing participant has led to two decades of SportsCenter hits and national
television coverage.
The trolls will come
out again on Thursday like they do every year. Please, I beg, do not feed
them.
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