Over the last several years, the National Football League has held its annual Draft across the country, welcoming in the next generation of football players amid capacity crowds. During a recent episode of The Sporting Class, host Pablo Torre contended that the event is “fully just part of the sports media industrial complex,” and it draws interest from fans around the country. John Skipper, the former president of ESPN, recalled that the NFL Draft used to be held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and he acknowledged that it was a “very smart decision” by the league to take the event on the road beginning in 2015.
“To me, the Draft is an astonishing phenomenon,” Skipper said. “It is not in and of itself particularly entertaining, and I know that the commissioner Roger [Goodell] has said that, ‘Gee, maybe they need to speed this up a little bit,’ but it is one of those things that is tediously fascinating, right? It’s not interesting to watch, but it’s hard to quit watching, particularly if you care about a team.”
The first day of NFL Draft coverage on ESPN, NFL Network, ABC, ESPN Deportes and other digital platforms averaged 13.6 million viewers, representing an 11% year-over-year increase. This momentum continued on the second day when the event realized a 40% gain from the proceedings last year, becoming the second most-watched Day 2 in the history of the NFL Draft with an average of 7.4 million viewers.
Skipper does not believe it matters where the event is being held, although he acceded that the Green Bay locale may have slightly helped in this instance. Even so, he referred to the entertainment as being “pretty modest” around the event and was not sure exactly what it was.
“The entertainment is all the media members who were giving you content hours and hours a day,” said David Samson, former president of the Miami Marlins and host of Nothing Personal. “Mel Kiper Jr., as an example, gets himself in the news because he’s so crazy over Shedeur Sanders, but people are watching that. People are watching different networks, whether it’s the NFL Network, ESPN, they’re waiting to hear what God Bless Football has to say, whatever the case is about the Draft and the picks. That is unique.”
Skipper recalled how he was recently waiting on a customs line and heard someone shout if anyone knew who the Miami Dolphins had selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. From there, the program discussed Sanders sliding to the fifth round and ultimately being selected by the Cleveland Browns, leading Samson to aver that the “craziness” was created because of the media surmising that he was going to be a high pick. Torre stated that the event is unpredictable, unscripted and possesses storylines accompanied by the countdown clock, essentially bringing the components of live sports to this program.
“I am the guy who’s going to point out that the Draft as a concept can be, from a logical perspective, disrupted and turned into all-out free agency and that we can reconstitute the programming,” Torre said to Skipper, “but every year, you’re argument, as it often does I must admit, that the way it is now is efficient in a way that should be respected, which is to say, ‘Look at this live event that is rating.’ It’s hard to argue with.”
“Success is hard to argue with,” Skipper replied. “I can personally not find it scintillating entertainment, but it does great. We loved it, we wanted it to go as long as possible. We wanted days and days of the Draft.”
Samson presumed that the NFL Draft would align with the interest of Netflix, which has reportedly been “keeping its options open” after it had previously been reported that it was not going to bid on the event. Netflix co-chief executive officer Ted Sarandos has stated that the company is trying to do live events, some of which fall into the sports category. The company is embarking on the second year of its media rights deal with the NFL to broadcast Christmas Day football games coming off last season’s doubleheader, which averaged more than 30 million global viewers.
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