Oh Mel...

I've been thinking about Mel Kiper all day. No, I don't have a whole lot else going on. But I found this on Wikipedia

ESPN's coverage of the 1994 NFL draft was less than eight and a half minutes in when Kiper said, "The Colts have to come out of this draft with a quarterback." Tennessee's Heath Shuler and Fresno State's Trent Dilfer were regarded as sure-fire future NFL stars, and Indianapolis' starter was Jim Harbaugh. The Colts wound up with two of the first five picks. With No. 2, they chose running back Marshall Faulk from San Diego State. With the fifth pick -- Shuler having gone to the Washington Redskins with the third pick -- the Colts were expected to take Dilfer. Instead, they
chose Trev Alberts, a linebacker from Nebraska. Kiper's reaction to this was "To pass up a Trent Dilfer, when all you have is Jim Harbaugh -- give me a break. That's why the Colts are picking second every year in the draft, not battling for the Super Bowl like other clubs in the National Football League."

Less than 10 minutes later, at a location away from the draft site, ESPN's Chris Mortensen was interviewing Colts general manager Bill Tobin. Mortensen asked a question about the Colts' bypassing a quarterback with their top-five choices. Mortensen didn't mention Kiper in his question to Tobin. Tobin's 55-second response was "We got a guy up here ... and who in the hell is Mel Kiper, anyway? I mean, here's a guy who criticizes everybody, whoever they take. He's got the answers to who you should take, to who you shouldn't take. He tells us about your team. He tells us about the Rams. Mel Kiper is a tortoise. He tells us about Tampa and everything else. In my knowledge of him, he's never even put on a jockstrap, he's never been a player, he's never been a coach, he's never been a scout, he's never been an administrator, and all of a sudden, he's an expert. He's in our paper two days ago, telling us who we have to take. We don't have to take anybody that Mel Kiper says we have to take. Mel Kiper has no more credentials to do what he's doing than my neighbor, and my neighbor's a postman and he doesn't even have season tickets to the NFL."

Kiper responded to Tobin with a biting tirade that drew huge cheers from the fans in the gallery and wry smiles from Chris Berman and the other ESPN commentators I'm secure in my position. Obviously, Bill Tobin's not very secure in his position. You cannot go with Jim Harbaugh and pass up Trent Dilfer. That's why the Colts are the laughingstock of the league year in and year out." Trev Alberts retired after three seasons. Dilfer was moderatly succsesful at Tampa Bay, though after being unceremoniously cut by Tampa after six years, he went on to win Super Bowl XXXV as quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens and has been a respectable mentor to young quarterbacks ever since.

Colts' incumbent Jim Harbaugh led the NFL in passing in 1995 while taking the Colts to the AFC Championship Game. Harbaugh was voted to the Pro-Bowl by his NFL peers.

Kiper grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and resides in Jarrettsville, Maryland with his family. He attended Calvert Hall College High School and Essex Community College. He never participated in football on any level in high school or college.