On Tuesday, ESPN began looking into the relationship between draft guru Mel Kiper and agent Gary Wichard.
On Wednesday, the case was closed, according to Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal.
Why did the investigation end so quickly? One of the reasons may have been Kiper’s machine-gun rattling of the instances where he had a Wichard client rated lower than the Wichard client actually was picked, which we heard on ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike in the Morning. Kiper also defended himself vigorously in an online chat, which was much easier to digest because the information could be gleaned without, you know, having to listen to him speak.
Or maybe ESPN realized that the Sports Illustrated article didn’t actually constitute new information. The Kiper-Wichard connection has been well known for years; ESPN surely has crossed this bridge long before Kiper’s latest contract was signed. It would have been unfair and wrong for ESPN to suddenly wring hands and gnash teeth regarding a relationship of which ESPN has been well aware.
Or maybe ESPN is confident that Kiper hasn’t been corrupted by relationships with Wichard or other agents. Former ESPN producer Fred Gaudelli, who now produces NBC’s Sunday Night Football, contacted us via e-mail today with a first-hand assessment of Kiper’s work.
“I was the Producer or Executive Producer of ESPN’s coverage of the NFL Draft from 1990 to 2001,” Gaudelli said. “I spoke to Mel Kiper virtually every day from combine time through draft day(s). I knew his thoughts and opinions of the top 50 to 100 players each year and trust me when I tell you he never falsely pumped or promoted any player for any reason.
“Mel’s evaluations were from the tape he studied, team and league personnel he spoke to and whatever time he spoke to the players themselves. To suggest he was pimping for Wichard or any other agent is patently false. Mel never once said, ‘We need to showcase this player, or we should do something extra on this player.’ He would sit back, answer our questions, and analyze whatever it was we wanted analyzed on and off the air.”
Gaudelli explained that, in 11 years, Kiper rarely compromised his views, and only at the behest of ESPN producers.
“My first draft with him was 1990, it became apparent that Jeff George was going to be the first overall pick, Mel didn’t think George was an NFL quarterback,” Gaudelli said. “The night before the show I asked him for his top 40 players so we could identify them graphically. Nowhere in his top 40 did he have Jeff George. When I questioned him about it his reply was something like, ‘I would never draft or sign this guy -- ever.’ When I told him we would look a little foolish not having the top overall pick in our top 40, he said, “Fine, put him at 40, but when it comes up I want to say I would never draft this guy.’”
That said, we suggest that Kiper tone it down a bit, lest he be perceived as protesting too much. In today’s chat, for example, Kiper defended his aggressive stance on quarterback Jimmy Clausen (a Wichard client) by saying that "[a]nybody’s opinion of Clausen, whether you like him or not can’t be [a]ffected by how he plays as a rookie.”
We realize that it takes time to fully assess an NFL quarterback. But one of Clausen’s biggest selling points was the fact that he was trained in a pro-style offense and thus ready to hit the ground sprinting. Though his performance this year won’t be on his tombstone, it hardly becomes irrelevant to the overall assessment of the player.
