Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 22, 1995 TAG: 9505050007
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On the NFL draft, that's what he is supposed to be. That's what he's paid to be. And most years, he's more than 80 percent correct about who will pick whom on this weekend.
Some kids want to be doctors, others lawyers, others firemen, others cowboys. Kiper, who played baseball as a youth, locked onto talent scouting in pro football as a Baltimore Colts fan.
``I thought that taking an analytical look at the college talent out there was something fans were doing anyway,'' Kiper said. ``And I thought the evaluation in football was something that was of more interest, more so than in other sports.''
What Kiper found was a niche that has become a living. Today and Sunday, he will appear on ESPN's draft coverage for the 12th straight year, giving his opinions on picks and pans.
He's been doing what he does on the air longer than that. Kiper, 44, founded Draft Publications Inc. in 1981 while a student at Essex Community College in Baltimore. He never graduated. He didn't need the degree.
Kiper's ``NFL Draft Report'' and ``Draft Preview'' are well-regarded annual publications. His draft reports are compiled after watching hours of college games and tape and talking with coaches, players, scouts and team executives.
He doesn't try to be controversial, just candid, but Kiper realizes that any attention he gets can help his business. So, when Kiper was critical of the Colts' first-round pick of Nebraska linebacker Trev Alberts last year and Indianapolis football operations boss Bill Tobin fired back, it drew even more attention to Kiper's work.
Turns out Kiper was correct, too, in saying the Colts - if they were going to trade up - should have drafted a quarterback and not Alberts. Kiper liked Alberts; he just wasn't the right pick at that time for Indianapolis.
``I said Jim Harbaugh wasn't the answer, and he wasn't, and quarterback is still a need area for the Colts,'' Kiper said earlier this week. ``They're going to have to trade [with Tampa Bay] for Craig Erickson or draft a quarterback.''
It's no surprise Kiper and Tobin haven't spoken since the Colts' executive blasted the so-called draft expert.
``Everybody has his right to an opinion in this country,'' Kiper said. ``I have strong opinions, and I'll state them. Tobin said I don't have any accountability. That's wrong. My reports are out there to scrutinize. If I weren't doing my job, people wouldn't want them.''
Kiper, whose father played minor-league baseball and coached that sport, was encouraged in his analysis by former Colts' executive Ernie Accorsi. Kiper was nearly hired by the franchise before it moved to Indianapolis.
``Considering all that has happened since, it worked out for the best,'' Kiper said.
Kiper's business has flourished because he understood long ago that others were doing the same thing he was but not getting paid for it. Fans always try to figure out who's best and who's needed by their favorite NFL franchises.
The seven-round draft normally isn't as intriguing as the weeks leading up to it. Kiper and others like him - Joel Buschbaum of Pro Football Weekly is another prominent draftnik - feed off that.
There's another factor at work, too. Most NFL teams haven't played a game in four months. Fans just can't wait for something to happen.
``The draft is really the start of the 1995 season,'' Kiper said. ``People start to get a handle on what kind of gains a team has, what kind of losses. The draft coverage gives the fans commentary and analysis. They like that.
``Free agency has only aided the process. Fans want players to move around. It makes it interesting. To fans, the season doesn't start in September. It starts with the draft.''
The NFL seized on this concept 16 years ago when the league became the first to televise the draft. The NBA followed, then the NHL. Baseball still conducts its draft in virtual secrecy, releasing the names of only its first-round picks.
Kiper's work has only helped bring more interest to football. And when he raves about San Francisco's selections of Bryant Young and William Floyd last year and calls Dallas' 1994 draft ``very mediocre to below average,'' he doesn't apologize or flinch.
In the 1995 draft, Kiper said Alcorn State's Steve McNair ``is the only quarterback that has great possibility, but he has to get into the right system where he isn't forced to seize the reins right away.''
Kiper likes McNair to go to Minnesota or Philadelphia, where he could be an ``heir apparent'' to Warren Moon or Randall Cunningham. He also says Carolina will trade the No.1 pick to someone, who will take Penn State running back Ki-Jana Carter.
And if he's wrong, Kiper knows someone will remind him of that.
by CNB