Kiper

Last year's NFL draft, stocked with pop-idol personalities, crackled with a celebrity cachet that nearly made the pro football spring rite more the stuff of Entertainment Tonight than ESPN. For instance, even before he was drafted into the pros, former Southern California quarterback Matt Leinart was on People magazine's list of "100 Most Beautiful People." Not to be outdone, USC running back Reggie Bush did a beefcake photo shoot for GQ. And a Sports Illustrated cover featuring former Texas star Vince Young hailed him as "Superman."

It's not the proficiency engendered by Melvin Kiper Jr. in his specialized and highly speculative field of evaluating football playing talent that sets him apart. He turned a guessing game into a business, a broker of sorts, who has gained respect, recognition and, on occasion, been targeted with biting criticism.Kiper is in an endeavor where it's easier to be wrong than right. But his opinions, which he can't afford to keep to himself, are considered valuable to an extensive reading and listening audience.

Cornerback Chad Scott, Maryland's hard-hitting cornerback, figures to be selected in the second or third round of the NFL draft tomorrow.Scott, 6 feet 1 and 189 pounds, is ranked as the fourth-best cornerback prospect by ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr., and Joel Buchsbaum of Pro Football Weekly lists him as second-best prospect at safety, behind Miami's Tremain Mack, even though Scott never played at safety in his two years at Maryland.Some mock drafts have had Scott even going in the first round, possibly to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Just as he was the most intriguing figure in January's national championship football game, former Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips will serve the same function at this weekend's NFL draft, and the newly minted Baltimore Ravens should be right in the middle of all that intrigue.The Ravens have the fourth pick in the first round Saturday, and could find themselves in position to take Phillips, who comes to the draft table with a world of talent and just as much controversy.Phillips, widely acknowledged as the best running back in this year's field, is on probation for assaulting his former girlfriend, and his selection likely will touch off a firestorm of protest, the kind of notoriety spurred by a club's move from Cleveland.

Want to send Mel Kiper Jr.'s blood pressure soaring? Just call him a "draftnik," or imply that his encyclopedic knowledge of all things related to the NFL draft somehow makes him a little, well, different."

To illustrate how the interest in the NFL draft has soared in the past quarter century, it's only necessary to note that when the Steelers made Joe Greene of North Texas State the fourth selection in the 1969 draft, a Pittsburgh paper ran a headline: "Joe Who?"Twenty-six years later, Greene and the coach who selected him, Chuck Noll, are in the Hall of Fame with four Super Bowl rings, and it's impossible to imagine any football follower who would not know the name of the fourth pick in the draft.

ASHBURN, Va. -- What the NFL's college draft lacked in quality yesterday, it certainly made up in theater.There was a lot of wheeling and dealing in the unpredictable first round as the San Francisco 49ers traded both up and down, the Los Angeles Rams traded down twice and the Indianapolis Colts twice passed up quarterback Trent Dilfer of Fresno State.The Colts' decision sparked a debate between the team's director of football operations, Bill Tobin, and Baltimore draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. during the ESPN draft telecast.

The NFL draft is all about possibilities. As Tom Petty sang, "The future was wide-open."And keep in mind that Petty grew up in the state that's home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.On Sunday and Monday, you can watch your favorite NFL team and fantasize that its first-round selection will be the next Lawrence Taylor. Of course, that's assuming that you still have a favorite team and that you can stand to have Paul "Baltimore? Isn't That a Washington Suburb?" Tagliabue on your screen without tossing a shoe at the TV.But let's put aside petty concerns (though not Petty ones)

COLLEGE PARK -- Steve Ingram isn't a typical Terp.The Maryland football roster is dominated by freshmen and sophomores, but Ingram is a sixth-year senior. It's a physically small team with the exception of left tackle, where Ingram throws around his 300 pounds. In a program that has won seven games over the past three years, he's the only player whose background includes a winning season and a bowl game.Experience and size, however, weren't the Ingram attributes Maryland was thankful for last December.

Serious about NFL draft? ESPN's Kiper is your manDon't go messing with day . . . or hairIn "Saturday Night Fever," John Travolta sits down to a family meal after carefully preening in his room. An argument ensues, and Travolta's dad gives him a potch -- or what would've been a potch (Yiddish for smack) if the family had been Jewish instead of Italian -- on the head."Don't touch duh hair," Travolta protests.It's in that spirit that we approach today's topic: ESPN's NFL draft show (Sunday, noon-6:30 p.m.)

Baltimore draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. looks at Georgia quarterback Matt Stafford and sees a little of the Broncos' Jay Cutler. Big arm, can make all the throws, but a little inconsistent. "He's inconsistent like Cutler was at Vanderbilt and still is with the Denver Broncos," Kiper said. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/ravensinsider)

Presenting another week of sports media notes while wondering whether I can convince my wife - citing noted horticulturist Peter Griffin of Family Guy - that dandelions count as flowers: When I was a little boy, my parents took me to Radio City Music Hall. I don't recall a whole lot, other than how the restroom seemed absolutely huge and the tiles gleamed like nothing I had ever seen before in my young life. Oh, and there was a guy in a New York Jets jersey who was booing the Rockettes.

There is a lot of suspense surrounding the Ravens' first-round pick in the 2008 draft. Will it be a cornerback or an offensive tackle? Or will general manager Ozzie Newsome stick to his philosophy of taking the best player available? The second round has even more excitement because the Ravens will probably select a quarterback from among Louisville's Brian Brohm, Delaware's Joe Flacco and Michigan's Chad Henne. "Kyle Boller set them back, what, how long has he been with the team, five years?"

Over the years, I've had a few things to say about ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. And, yes, most of them have had to do with his hair. I once wrote: "Kiper's hair has loomed over the draft telecast like smoke billowing from Mount Etna." He answered the question directly another time: "Mel, what's with the hair? `It's my hair, and I have nothing negative to say about it,' Kiper said." I even referred to him as "head of the Committee to Preserve the Pompadour." But as we enter ESPN's 28th year of NFL draft coverage, consider how the landscape has changed - even if Kiper's hair hasn't (sorry, couldn't resist one last time)

Last year's NFL draft, stocked with pop-idol personalities, crackled with a celebrity cachet that nearly made the pro football spring rite more the stuff of Entertainment Tonight than ESPN. For instance, even before he was drafted into the pros, former Southern California quarterback Matt Leinart was on People magazine's list of "100 Most Beautiful People." Not to be outdone, USC running back Reggie Bush did a beefcake photo shoot for GQ. And a Sports Illustrated cover featuring former Texas star Vince Young hailed him as "Superman."

Once the obscure purview of NFL coaches and scouts armed with stopwatches, the NFL scouting combine opens today in Indianapolis under the spotlight of 27 hours of live TV coverage over seven days. More than 320 college players have been invited to go through what amounts to an exhaustive job interview. They'll run 40-yard dashes, maneuver through traffic cones, lift weights, be probed by doctors and be interrogated by club personnel. The workouts actually don't begin until Saturday and will continue through Tuesday, but news conferences with the players as well as NFL coaches and general managers start today, as does the NFL Network's television coverage.

When ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. opens his mouth around this time of year, what comes out must be measured in paragraphs, not sentences. Sentences, frankly, are simply too restrictive for Kiper, even if his time, as usual, is limited. He doesn't pause for punctuation - or to draw a breath, for that matter - instead choosing to speak in a series of rapid-fire, high-volume monologues jampacked with as much information as humanly possible. Want to know who Kiper, 45, thinks will be the best player available when it's the Ravens' turn to pick in the 2006 NFL draft?

Though on hiatus, Baltimore-area media personality Mel Kiper Jr. said he expects to continue his longtime relationship with ESPN, despite reports that he had recently split with the network and his absence from the network's radio broadcasts this month. Kiper, 44, formally left the network when his contract expired on Oct. 1. Kiper had been with ESPN for the previous 22 years, after rising to prominence as an expert on the NFL draft. During that time, he also ended up contributing to the network's magazine and Web site, which he hopes to be a part of in the future.

It's not the proficiency engendered by Melvin Kiper Jr. in his specialized and highly speculative field of evaluating football playing talent that sets him apart. He turned a guessing game into a business, a broker of sorts, who has gained respect, recognition and, on occasion, been targeted with biting criticism.Kiper is in an endeavor where it's easier to be wrong than right. But his opinions, which he can't afford to keep to himself, are considered valuable to an extensive reading and listening audience.

Cornerback Chad Scott, Maryland's hard-hitting cornerback, figures to be selected in the second or third round of the NFL draft tomorrow.Scott, 6 feet 1 and 189 pounds, is ranked as the fourth-best cornerback prospect by ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr., and Joel Buchsbaum of Pro Football Weekly lists him as second-best prospect at safety, behind Miami's Tremain Mack, even though Scott never played at safety in his two years at Maryland.Some mock drafts have had Scott even going in the first round, possibly to the Pittsburgh Steelers.