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Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
Published on Friday, Apr 25, 2008
Gee, is there anything going on this weekend on television?
With the NBA playoffs rolling on, a full slate of Major League Baseball games, the Stanley Cup playoffs (yes, hockey still exists) and NASCAR, there is plenty.
ESPN and the NFL Network are both offering coverage of the NFL Draft, the annual hypefest surrounding college football players looking for fortune and glory on the professional playing field.
Every other event will have to line up to see who gets the privilege of playing second fiddle. The NFL Draft will capture the imagination of the nation's sports fans who will camp out in homes, bars or wherever, just to see how well their respective team did, and how divisional opponents fared.
What other sport has that type of allure during the offseason?
The Browns do not have a pick on the first day (Saturday) this year, but you can bet your dog masks and bones that local fans will find time for the festivities.
There are plenty of changes to take in.
Day 1 will be markedly shorter with the kickoff at 3 p.m. instead of the noon starting time of the recent past.
Thankfully, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell saw some wisdom in shrinking the time to 10 minutes from 15 minutes between each team making a first-round selection.
There will only be five minutes between second-round choices then the day ends; everything else happens on Day 2. Personally, I think that makes for a very Super Bowl-like day to plan parties around.
And there is more than the just the selections. The hype machine will be going for 24 hours at NFL Network (provided you can get it).
The mirth and madness begins there at 11 a.m. Saturday with the NFL Total Access Pre-Draft Show, followed by the draft itself at 3 p.m. and a wrap-up show at 11 p.m. Day 2 (rounds 3-7) festivities begin at 9 a.m. and end with a wrap-up show at 7 p.m. The league also will use one of its best assets, NFL.com, to stream coverage over the Internet, and some will make its way to Sprint mobile phones via NFL Mobile.
The draft has been at home on ESPN for 29 years, and there's little reason to believe that's going to change anytime soon. The worldwide leader isn't going to take a back seat to anyone — even its broadcast partner.
ESPN will offer news of the draft across 14 of its entities. On television, it begins at 11 a.m. Saturday with SportsCenter Special: On the Clock, followed at 3 p.m. by coverage of the draft itself, which will last until 8 before switching to ESPN2. As is the custom, Chris Berman and Mel Kiper Jr. will lead the coverage. On the second day, all eight hours will air on ESPN with Trey Wingo hosting. ESPN.com, ESPN Mobile and ESPN Radio also will have coverage.
Yes, Kiper speaks
With the saturation of coverage, sometimes the reason for it can get lost in the shuffle. When fans look for draft analysis they generally turn to one guru — Kiper. So what's different about this year's cattle call of talent?
''You're in the moment and you've been looking at these players for years, obviously under the microscope since August or September,'' he said. ''To see it all come to fruition, it makes every year compelling but for different reasons.''
And this year?
''With so much fluidity at the top, so many players are equal at the top of the board. And there are a lot of factors that contribute to that, including things that have transpired the last few months and workouts not going so well. . . .
''It's typical what happens, but this year there are some factors that have made it a very compelling draft.''
Cavs numbers add up
When all the numbers are totaled from the varying entities broadcasting the Cavaliers-Washington Wizards playoff series, Game 2 on Monday did an impressive 15.3 TV rating locally.
That means about 230,000 Northeast Ohio households tuned in. Cable channel TNT pulled about a third of the audience (nice to see someone likes Charles Barkley), the rest came courtesy of FSN Ohio and the feed it provided to WUAB (Channel 43).
Tell us something new
In NFL's Top 10 Football Factories, Ohio State rankedNo. 4 on the list. For the record, Michigan ranked behind OSU at No. 5.
The school to provide the NFL with the most talent? The University of Southern California.
George M. Thomas can be reached at sportswriterabj@sbcglobal.net Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/sportsblitz/
Get the full article here.
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