Author Archives: Kent Sterling
NFL Draft – 5 bold Colts predictions; Mel Kiper is a genius! Anthony Rizzo laughs as are Cubs blown out!
NFL Draft Weekend – the show that made Mel Kiper America’s most bizarre household name!
ESPN’s Mel Kiper is a genius.
Imagine a job where being right versus wrong is impossible to quantify. Then, imagine results lag three to five years after work is complete. Without the possibility of failure, only success can exist, right? That’s the niche Kiper created for himself as a draft analyst, and that is why he is a genius.
For almost 40 years, Kiper has opined about the potential NFL careers of those likely to be drafted. He will do it again tonight as part of the coverage of an event he has helped grow from bizarre afterthought believed to be unfit for broadcast to a monster cities build weekends around, like a mini Super Bowl.
It would be easy to congratulate Kiper for earning a full-time salary for three days work, but that would discount the insane level of prep needed for those three days. Watching tape on those projected to be taken in the first round can be exhausting. On Saturday, Kiper will offer informed opinions on anonymous interior offensive linemen taken in the seventh round. That takes endless hours of effort.
What makes the draft work as a broadcast is that fans get to try to outguess their team’s GM and Kiper. The closest comp to Mel’s role as ESPN brings the draft into our living room is hall of fame Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the seventh inning stretch at Wrigley Field. The key, according to Harry, was that everyone in the ballpark felt comfortable singing along because he was a terrible but enthusiastic singer. We like outguessing Kiper because we are not intimidated by his insight.
Twenty-three years after Harry’s demise, the Cubs are still playing a video of him singing so fans who weren’t alive when he last drew breath can experience the joy of singing along.
It is far less fun to try to outguess Charley Casserly, a guy who won a Super Bowl as the GM of the Washington Football Team. Casserly is a haughty executive right out of central casting. Kiper is like us – goofy with an outdated ‘do.
Kiper is famous for two things beyond his draft weekend acumen – his helmet hair, which might have been in style when Kiper first came to ESPN, and a dust up with then Indianapolis Colts GM Bill Tobin after he selected Trev Alberts fifth overall in the 1994 draft. Kiper thought Tobin should have taken quarterback Trent Dilfer instead, said so on ESPN, and Tobin became enraged.
Tobin’s tirade in full was, “Who in the hell is Mel Kiper, anyway? I mean, here’s a guy who criticizes everybody, whoever they take. 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. 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.”
The only problem was that Kiper was right. Tobin helped make Kiper’s career while torching his own legacy.
Alberts even questioned the wisdom of Tobin grabbing him at five, and then backed up his lack of self-confidence by amassing 69 tackles in 29 games during a lackluster three-year career with the Colts. Dilfer played for five teams from 1994-2007 and helped the Ravens win a Super Bowl in his only season in Baltimore. Dilfer’s career wasn’t hall of fame worthy, but it was a hell of a lot more productive than Alberts’.
If you ask an informed NFL fan about Bill Tobin, they will say, “Oh the guy who took Trev Alberts and yelled at Mel Kiper?” The truth is that Tobin, while imperfect, helped build and refine two pretty good teams – the 1987-1992 Chicago Bears and the Colts from 1994-1997. Tobin drafted a few guys other than Alberts – Marshall Faulk, Marvin Harrison, and Tarik Glenn among them. Tobin wasn’t great, but he wasn’t a buffoon either.
The moral of that story is that if you are going to put a media guy on blast, you better be right.
Who in the hell is Mel Kiper, anyway? He’s the guy still doing the job, as he has for 27 years since Tobin’s effort to publicly eviscerate him. Since then, he’s laughed all the way to the bank and deserves a spot as a contributor in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for his major role in the NFL owning endless sports news cycles in April.
NFL Draft today – Big QB night – what will Colts do? Woodson’s 1st month at IU! NCAA approves transfer rule! Should Pacers tank?
Indiana Basketball – one month after Woodson’s hire, how much better is IU? Colts draft path is clear!
Wentz could be free for ’21 if Colts trade back! Five fun facts about Mike Woodson; Pacers lose more than game
Indianapolis Colts mocks all over road – must trade back, take LT & Edge! Could IU’s 1981 Champ team compete today
Indianapolis Colts can trade back – still get starting LT! IU best shooter – not Alford! Bohannon back at Iowa – AGAIN?
Indiana Basketball – Best IU shooter ever? Close, but I’ll take…! Colts LT prospects ranked!
Indianapolis Colts – Is GM Chris Ballard best GM in the NFL? Can’t crown him – yet
Colts GM Chris Ballard might be the best general manager in the NFL, but I’ll wait for him to prove it before I assume it.
If Colts general manager is such a genius, why are his Colts 32-32 in the four years since he took over?
That’s a legitimate question I landed on while asking myself why I hold Ballard in such high esteem. Ballard is a good and honest GM who appears to be exceptionally centered and confident. He accepts responsibility for errors and deflects credit to his staff. The 2018 and 2020 drafts orchestrated by Ballard appear to be two of the best in franchise history.
But the Colts are still 32-32 over the last four years.
Maybe franchise quarterback Andrew Luck‘s retirement prior to the 2019 season kept the Colts from winning in greater bulk over the last two seasons. Losing that level of player 15 days prior to the 2019 season opener would put any GM and team in a bit of a bind.
Ballard’s 2018 draft yielded two rookie All-Pro’s. That was the first time one draft brought two rookie All-Pro’s to the same team since the Chicago Bears drafted Gales Sayers and Dick Butkus in 1965. We’ll see if Quenton Nelson and Darius Leonard earn enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame like Sayers and Butkus did, but to this point they have been gems from a draft that produced few. Three members of the 2018 draft class have an approximate value over 40. Nelson and Leonard are two of them (Lamar Jackson is the other).
Contrary to the very positive feelings Colts fans have for Ballard is the perception of his much reviled predecessor Ryan Grigson. Ask 20 Colts fans their thoughts about Grigson, and 16 will say he was a terrible GM. The other four will punctuate “terrible” with a string of unprintable obscenities. Oddly, Grigson never endured a losing season in five years as the Colts GM. He took over a 2-14 team, and the Colts flipped the script, posting three straight 11-5 seasons. After back to back 8-8 years, Grigson was out and the Colts finished 4-1`2 the following year.
Grigson had the benefit of drafting Luck #1 overall in the 2012 draft. With Luck, all was possible. The fatal sin for Grigson was trying to do too much too quickly after his initial success. The Trent Richardson trade didn’t help, and neither did signing fading free agents after the Colts earned a spot in the 2014 AFC Championship game.
Still – 49-31 is a pretty decent record for a guy whom Colts fans detest. With one season fewer at the helm than Grigson, Ballard’s Colts have already lost one more game. To match Grigson’s tally for regular season wins after five seasons, the Colts would need to go undefeated in 2021.
Now I’m not arguing for a second that Ballard has not faced more adversity than Grigson as a GM, or that Ballard has not put together two utterly superior drafts (2018 and 2020) – which is at least one more than Grigson. Stylistically, there is no comparison between the two. Ballard is transparent, confident, and capable of charm. Grigson was opaque, insecure, and occasionally churlish.
But…32-32 vs. 41-23.
Again, I am in no was staking out a position that Grigson was a better general manager than Ballard is, but Colts fans might want to tap the brakes on the argument that Ballard is the best GM in the NFL. Yes, I’ve listened to dozens make that argument, and when I counter with 32-32 and a playoff record of 1-2, I am admonished for my inability to understand that it takes many years to assemble a championship roster.
There is a GM each season that hoists a Lombardi Trophy, another who is disconsolate over losing a Super Bowl, and that two others who came close to punching their ticket. In four seasons, Ballard has never been any of those guys.
I’m not even saying that Ballard isn’t the best GM in the NFL. It’s just that I would like to hold the coronation after his labors bear significant fruit – which may happen as early as next February.
Many who question my football acumen and sanity for refusing to ordain Ballard as the pope of all GMs ask who other than Ballard I would rather have as the Colts GM. I do not have a good answer. Ballard’s combination of managerial skill, honesty, and ability to project talent is very special. But I am willing to concede that part of my appraisal is due to my personal respect and affection for him.
The argument is not whether we believe Ballard is the best GM in the NFL. It’s whether he should be crowned the best because we assume it rather than wait for him to prove it.
I’ll wait.