NFL Draft, as a Television Event, Doesn’t Offer Much Excitement

This was the ninth National Football League draft ESPN has televised, but the first on a Sunday. In past years, the draft was televised on a Tuesday, beginning at 5 a.m., Pacific time.

And that’s where it belongs. Or not on television at all.

ESPN, when it first began televising the draft in 1980, was a fledgling network desperate for programming. But ESPN has become too big to waste seven hours of continuous coverage on the draft, particularly on a busy sports Sunday.

The draft is tailor-made for newspapers--lots of names, numbers and statistics--and lots to analyze after it’s all over. But, as a live television event, it’s as boring as a political convention.

How could anybody without a vested interest in the draft sit there and watch it for very long?

Arizona State guard Randall McDaniel, after being picked by Minnesota in the first round, said: “Now I don’t have to sit around in front of the TV any longer.”

Thurman Thomas, an Oklahoma State running back who had an ESPN crew in his apartment, went to sleep.

The main problem is there is too much time to fill, and thus too much chatter and too much speculation. And often the speculation is incorrect.

An example: It was reported early Sunday that the Rams might trade their 14th pick for the New York Giants’ 10th and use it to select Miami wide receiver Michael Irvin. Reporter Howard Balzer, stationed at Rams Park in Anaheim, went as far as to say the Rams might pick Tim Brown, even though it was highly unlikely Brown, whom the Raiders made the sixth pick, was going to be available.

Other lowlights:

--Commissioner Pete Rozelle, before bowing out early with voice trouble, identifying Irvin as Marshall Irvin.

--Reporter Andrea Joyce, even though she was with Thomas, saying he was an Oklahoma running back. There’s a big difference between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

--Mel Kiper, whoever he is, and his 200-word sentences.