By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Sports Editor
The NFL Draft is an event. More than 300,000 people attend it and teams even send their cheerleaders to cheer on its draft picks.
It’s a major production from a TV standpoint, too. but when it comes to coverage on ESPN and the NFL Network, it’s falls flat like a missed field goal at the end of a close game.
Quite frankly, the TV coverage on ESPN and the NFL Network is lousy. Boring, Predictable. About as exciting as a Raiders-Browns game.
This is especially evident when compared to the time before the NFL Draft became a big-time event. When ESPN first started televising the NFL Draft it was must-see TV. That’s because it was pure and natural. The analysts would comment on the picks, often criticizing them. This would often invite counter points that would sometimes lead to arguments. That made for great TV.
The fans were also more fun to watch. The New York Jets fans were famous for booing the team’s draft selections. When Ken O’Brien was taken above Dan Marino in the famous “quarterback class” of 1983, the boos nearly brought down the building. Now, they cheer on the picks and even high-five the players.
Today’s TV coverage is like a corporate factory (which is is, in fact). Everything is staged – literally – and planned. The “pick is in” is announced, the player either makes a loooong walk through a tunnel to take the stage or is shown at a family party at home, they put on the hat of the team that selected them and then those at the draft are interviewed.
The commentators immediately kick into player highlights and stats with little to no analysis. There’s no knocking a pick, no controversy.
Then it’s onto the next pick and this same process continues for three hours.
Boring.
And that’s the problem when anything gets too big. It gets too structured, too corporate. It loses its character, which is what made it so popular in the first place.
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