Mel Kiper Jr. Is the Face of the NFL Draft, but He Almost Wasn’t

The 40 ^th anniversary of the Colts franchise moving from Baltimore to Indianapolis in 1984 is not exactly worthy of a celebration. It was a dark time for passionate Colts fans in Baltimore, whose team had been a staple of the NFL for decades, winning back-to-back NFL championships in the 1950s and Super Bowl V after the 1970 season. The move had a profound impact on countless lives. Had the Colts never left Baltimore, perhaps nobody’s life would have changed more than that of one of football’s most recognizable characters: Mel Kiper Jr.

On March 28, 1984, under cover of darkness, a parade of Mayflower moving vans was packed up with everything from the Baltimore Colts’ team facility that wasn’t bolted to the floor. The trucks headed west, and the Indianapolis Colts were born the next day.

Kiper was 23 years old at the time, three years into a crazy fledgling business in which he was publishing scouting reports on NFL draft prospects. One month after the Colts moved, Kiper made his first appearance on ESPN at the 1984 NFL Draft. In the 40 years since, Kiper become the father of a cottage industry, probably single-handedly responsible for the creation of the term “draftnik.”

Today, there are countless journalists and websites dedicated entirely to college scouting and draft coverage in all sports. One thing is certain: Kiper was the trailblazer. Which makes this “what if” exercise all the more fascinating:

What if the Colts never left Baltimore?

“Oh my God, I don’t know,” Kiper tells Athlon Sports. “It would have been a whole different story for me.”

Colts in chaos

To understand why, one must go back one year prior to the Colts’ move. The 22-year-old Kiper had already established a good relationship with then-Colts general manager Ernie Accorsi. Even in high school, Kiper had been sending his college scouting reports to Accorsi — and it was Accorsi who first suggested that Kiper might be onto something. But rather than wait to see how that might turn out, Accorsi offered Kiper a job in the Colts’ scouting department.

“Ernie wasn't bringing me in to be assistant GM,” Kiper says. “I would have been a player personnel assistant, basically. Whatever he needed me to do is what I would have been doing.”

Kiper, the kid from Baltimore, immediately said yes. Before he ever started, however, everything changed.

By 1983, the relationship between Colts owner Robert Irsay and the city of Baltimore was in shambles. Irsay had been fighting for a new stadium since the mid-1970s, to no avail, and there was already plenty of chatter about relocation. Jacksonville and Phoenix rumors were floated and debunked. The Colts were still in Baltimore when the 1983 draft rolled around, and they had the No. 1 pick. Stanford quarterback John Elway was the consensus choice.

Problem is, Elway wanted no part of the Baltimore mess. He was also a star baseball player, already drafted by the New York Yankees in 1981. Elway warned the Colts that if they drafted him, he would play baseball instead. But Accorsi knew Elway was a generational talent who could not be passed up. He drafted Elway, thinking the team could convince him to make it work. Instead, without Accorsi’s knowledge, Irsay orchestrated the trade that sent Elway to the Denver Broncos.

Accorsi saw the writing on the wall. He knew his job was in danger and he didn’t think the Colts would be in Baltimore much longer.

“When they made the Elway trade, that was pretty much it for me,” Kiper says. “Ernie called me and said, ‘Hey, I can't bring you in. I may be leaving. This organization's in a chaotic state. They may be moving. They just traded my quarterback without my knowledge.’ It was like everything that could go wrong was going wrong.”

Accorsi reiterated that he thought Kiper’s draft reports could be a legitimate business and he should stick with it. So he did.

The NFL draft back then was nowhere near the extravagant production it is today. After its founding in 1979, ESPN quickly realized there was something about this event that demanded the attention of the football world and acquired the rights to televise the 1980 draft. ESPN began dedicating more time and resources to the draft, but one key piece was missing — a “draft expert.”

ESPN producer Bill Fitts happened to be having lunch one day with a player agent who subscribed to Kiper’s draft report. When Fitts told him what they were looking for, the agent responded, “I know a guy.”

In January 1984, Kiper was in Bristol, Conn., interviewing with ESPN. By the time the Mayflower vans pulled out of Baltimore two months later, Kiper was already preparing for his debut on the network.

Kiper admits that things might have been very different if the trade had never happened and Elway played in Baltimore.

“I really believe that had Elway not been traded, the Colts would have never left town,” says Kiper. “Because there would have been such an enthusiasm in the city about the team, the great future, and people would have probably been buying season tickets and it would have been a situation that was so positive for everybody.

“I would have thought we could have built something special in Baltimore knowing we had this centerpiece of a future Hall of Fame quarterback.”

Santa Claus of the draft

If the only way the Colts could have stayed in Baltimore was if Elway had never been traded, that’s obviously the biggest curveball that would have changed NFL history dramatically. But it’s not insignificant to think about the evolution of draft analysis had Kiper taken that job with the Colts and never been hired by ESPN.

“I don't think they interviewed anybody else,” says Kiper, who recalls being hired about a week after his first meeting in Bristol.

“Sunday Night Football” producer Fred Gaudelli, who was part of ESPN’s draft coverage for 22 years, remembers when Fitts brought Kiper in for the interview. They all agreed the hire was a no-brainer.

“I don’t know in the time that I was there that we ever looked at anyone other than Mel,” Gaudelli says. “I can’t even imagine what we would have done without Mel. He became synonymous with the draft. He was almost like Santa Claus — he had that time of year when he was a popular guy.”

Gaudelli noted that Kiper was instrumental in ESPN’s production, identifying the players they needed to build highlights of and being in contact with all the teams.

“The production would have improved simply by advances in technology, but it’s really hard to imagine ESPN would have had the same success with the draft if they didn’t have Mel,” Gaudelli says. “You don’t want to say he alone made the draft. But as much as anyone, he made the draft.”

So while a Kiper-less ESPN might have taken a little longer to develop its draft coverage, what would the future hold for Kiper in an alternate universe where the Colts stayed in Baltimore?

Accorsi likely wouldn’t have left the Colts (which he did after the ’83 season). With Elway and Accorsi in the picture, it’s safe to assume the Baltimore Colts would have been formidable. And considering how successful Kiper has been at ESPN, it’s safe to assume he would have excelled in his role with the Colts. Climbing the ladder as a personnel executive, perhaps he would be a GM somewhere today.

Still, Kiper has no regrets and wouldn’t have wanted things to unfold any differently — though it has nothing to do with his success at ESPN. In 1988, Kiper met a Baltimore woman who began helping him with his draft publication. That woman, Kim, would become his wife.

“I would have never met Kim, never had my daughter, our granddaughter,” Kiper says. “So looking back, it worked out beautifully for me. I couldn't have scripted it any better.”

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