Kiper is merely human

Now that smoke from the weekend NFL Draft has cleared, the drama created by ESPN on this annual affair is an interesting study in hype, TV production and reality.

You need no bigger pile of evidence than the situation draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. placed Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn in last Saturday.

You could rank it as entertaining or cruel. Like watching a NASCAR wreck ... .

Kiper had Quinn a top-five talent. And after team after team failed to pick Quinn, Kiper squirmed and appeared defensive. Camera shots constantly showed Quinn losing $17 million dollars in 15-minute increments, a slow free fall.

ESPN's on-air talent had to fling out reasons for Quinn dropping. They criticized and evaluated. And Quinn, watching and listening to every word, was front and center on TV with his white-faced girlfriend. Quinn did a great job of not flinching while bamboo shoots were pounded up his fingernails ... .

For hours, ESPN's graphic kept placing Quinn as the highest rated available talent, and as the broadcast lumbered on and more teams kept passing on Quinn, the iconic Golden Domer, saying to Kiper, "Nope, he isn't."

It was sick.

I've got nothing against Quinn. He might end up being a star for the Browns.

Same with Kiper, although he's proved to be a real lightning rod. I respect anyone who works as hard as Kiper, studying film, talking to so-called experts, memorizing the 40 times and lifts of 300 college players.

But Kiper isn't infallible. He's no better or worse than your average guesser. Who can forget when he had BYU's John Walsh close to a first rounder in the early 1990s? Or in 2000, when he had Ute Mike Anderson "overrated." The Utah stud ended up a star in Denver. To his credit, Kiper isn't one to get caught up in Notre Dame clouds; in 1993 he didn't fall for the Rick Mirer hype.

An organ grinder monkey with a little hat can probably be 50 percent right most of the time.

But the situation Kiper and ESPN put Quinn in Saturday was stupid. Of course, Quinn did choose to be there.

As it turned out, in the eyes of NFL folks that counted, Cleveland and Miami both passed on Quinn, as did Detroit and Minnesota and 17 other "chance" picks in the first round. Then the Browns frantically traded to get a shot at Quinn for a far less value than Kiper had set him up for.

Perhaps a dose of reality?