Mel Kiper Jr. (; born July 25, 1960) is an analyst covering

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. He has appeared on ESPN's annual

NFL draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

coverage since 1984, providing in-depth information on the nation's potential draft picks.

Career

Kiper said that

Ernie Accorsi Ernest William Accorsi Jr. (born October 29, 1941) is a former American football executive. He served as the general manager of three teams in the National Football League: the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, and New York Giants. Education an ...

, general manager of the

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...

, encouraged him to become a draft analyst. Accorsi told him that there was a market for draft information and suggested that Kiper convert his analysis into a business. Kiper and fellow draft analyst

Todd McShay Todd Marshall McShay (born March 22, 1977) is an American football television analyst and commentator. Early life McShay attended North Shore Christian School in Lynn, Massachusetts and then Swampscott High School in Swampscott, Massachusetts, ...

are often featured together and compare their mock drafts on ESPN programs.

Big Board

Kiper creates what he calls his "big board", on which he ranks the top 25 players every week. During

draft coverage, Kiper's big board appears on the ticker and updates automatically once a player is selected.

Video game appearances

*Kiper voices himself as the ESPN draft expert, and has his own mock draft in ''

ESPN NFL 2K5 ''ESPN NFL 2K5'' is an American football video game developed by Visual Concepts for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles. Published by 2K Sports and the Sega Corporation, it is the sixth installment of the '' NFL 2K series'' and the last to use ...

'' and is "unlockable" as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

longsnapper In American football, the long snapper (or deep snapper) is a center on special teams whose duty is to snap the football over a longer distance, typically around 15 yards during punts, and 7–8 yards during field goals and extra point attem ...

. *Kiper appears in ''

NFL Head Coach ''NFL Head Coach'' is a National Football League video game that was released on June 20, 2006 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. The game allows the player to control an NFL team and become the greatest coach in NFL history. It features then ...

'' as a draft expert. *Kiper appears in ''

Madden NFL 07 ''Madden NFL 07'' is an American football video game based on the NFL that was published by EA Sports and developed by EA Tiburon. It is the first in the video game series to debut for the PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles as launch titles and the l ...

'' and '' 08'' during the pre-draft workout period.

Personal

Kiper's wife Kim, whom he married in 1989, assists him in running Mel Kiper Enterprises from their Baltimore home. They have one daughter together.

References

External links

Mel Kiper Jr.'s website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kiper, Mel Jr. 1960 births Living people Calvert Hall College High School alumni ESPN people People from Baltimore People from Harford County, Maryland