NFL Network & ESPN cameras won't show draftees on cell phone before pick is made

[RuthlessBurgher]

I love this change. In recent years, watching draft coverage on the TV, when the commissioner made an actual pick, it was anti-climactic, because everyone watching at home was already seeing the next guy about to be drafted on the phone with his new team for a minute or two before Goodell got to the podium with the official card. I'd rather not know who the pick is until the Commish reads the card. Good move.

ESPN, NFL Network tweak draft coverage; won't show draftees in Green Room

By Josh Katzowitz | NFL Blogger

Until Roger Goodell announces the first-round draft picks, you're not going to know who it is.

As we get set to experience the splendor of the NFL draft (this year, featuring 26 players in attendance!), the networks airing it are tweaking how they're covering the draft.

According to Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch, after the league met with ESPN and the NFL Network on Wednesday, the three entities have decided to turn up the intrigue on the drama.

Deitsch writes that the NFL Network and ESPN have agreed not to “show a draftee on the phone in the Green Room prior to the pick on the first night of the NFL Draft.” In past years obviously, those Green Room shots let the viewer knew who Roger Goodell was about to announce before Goodell could get to the podium and actually say the name.

This way, nobody except the draftee -- and whoever is sitting next to him in the Green Room -- will know which player the next team on the clock will take until Goodell announces it.

Which the league hopes will add even more intrigue to the proceedings and indirectly gives Goodell more power than ever before.

[URL]http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/eye-on-football/18655109/espn-nfl-network-tweak-draft-coverage-wont-show-draftees-in-green-room[/URL]

[steelblood]

Yeah, that is pretty good. Here is another idea. COVER THE DRAFT!!!!! Stop interviewing nitwits, reviewing the Super Bowl and free agency. And, in the 2nd and 3rd days, stop going to commercial just as a pick comes in and not talking about picks as they happen only to briefly list them in a much later recap. Simply talk about who is on the board before the pick and then review the pick afterward with video and maybe a brief discussion of how he will fit the new tea. Especially for the 2nd and 3rd days this would be a welcome change. I've tried ESPN and NFL Network, both continue to talk about the same 3 or 4 prospects or recent scandals for most of the broadcast. More irritatingly, but both networks pretty much abandon talking about what is currently going on during the 2nd and third round coverage. Instead, we constantly look back to the 1st round, talk about vet players, interview college coaches who have nothing to say, and listen to guys like Brian Billick (look this guy is known around the league for being a coach who had little or nothing with his team's drafts. Insiders make fun of him for this! Get him the hell off of the draft coverage!).