Who invented the nfl draft

The interest in the NFL draft has grown over the years, When I first started as a scout in the NFL, the draft was 12 rounds and all rounds were conducted on a Tuesday starting at 7am and ending shortly after 2am the next day. Here are some interesting facts and inside stories that are a part of the leagues draft history. Based on over 35 plus years as an NFL Scout and knowing the inside of how decisions are made, here are the best evaluators and drafters in the history of Pro Football.

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NUMBER OF ROUNDS First draft was in and was 9 rounds, went to 20 rounds in , 30 rounds in , 25 rounds in , 30 rounds in , back down to 20 rounds in , 17 rounds in , down to 12 rounds in , then down to 8 rounds in and then down to the 7 rounds we have today starting in In the early days, some picks would take hours.

In one instance, Cowboys GM Tex Schramm wanted to select Oregon receiver Mel Renfro but had concerns about his knee and wanted that answered before he handed in the pick. He made a phone call to a doctor in Oregon via a pay phone—bags of dimes were necessary scouting tools during those times? The examination and return phone call back to Schramm took 6 hours—but with no time limit, everyone had to wait. The glasses look thicker. Nobody seems more comfortable in front of cameras or sounds more authoritative on a subject.

Confidence stems from 43 years of specializing in a niche he helped popularize. When he started evaluating players as a teenager in the s, most people had never even heard of a mock draft. Kiper has lasted longer than many of those who mocked his mock drafts, including coaches, general managers, and media members.

Today there are competitors and imitators. Seems like everyone with a sports website tries to be a draft guru. However, at the age of 60, Kiper is the OG. Kiper has been scouting college football players longer than ESPN has existed. No one connected with the network is more associated with one sports event during which no actual games are played. Kiper has come a long way since he was a high schooler who simply wanted to be an NFL scout, handing reports to Ernie Accorsi, then a Baltimore Colts executive.

Credit Kiper for taking advantage of opportunities and turning a passion project into a cottage industry. He saw the value of draft analysis long before most. Everybody told me I was nuts to have that vision. There was a time when America paid little attention to the draft. It was like the equivalent of city council meetings. There was indeed an audience for the NFL Draft. The draft expanded to a three-day format in , and moved out of New York City in The NFL Draft has expanded beyond television to become a multimedia event.

The NFL Draft event set a record for the highest-rated and most-watched draft ever, according to Nielsen statistics, with a combined 3. NFL Draft telecasts combined to reach more than For the second straight year, all seven rounds of the event were aired on broadcast television.

The NFL Draft also broke attendance records as more than , fans took part in events in Nashville and celebrated the newest class of NFL rookies. Now one of the most popular events on the NFL calendar, the draft attracts huge audiences — both on television and online — and has proven its value in building and sustaining successful franchises.

Which team will go first? How long does each team have to make its pick? Who is eligible to be drafted? The NFL has specific rules for each part of the draft process. Reeves hired former Packers tailback Eddie Kotal to be the first full-time professional football scout.

Kotal and Reeves put together a roster that made it to the NFL Championship game in , , and , winning it all at the beginning and end of that stretch. Just as now, different teams had wildly different levels of commitment to building through the draft. Just as now, the Washington Redskins did not cover themselves in glory when April rolled around. Rossi, though, was a junior—by the rules at the time, ineligible to be drafted. In , the Redskins again selected Rossi—only to discover he had no interest in playing professional football.

Signing players became a furtive battle. Both league's drafts were held in secret, on unannounced dates. Teams eventually started " kidnapping " players, Old School-style. Teams even sequestered some draftees in hotels to keep them away from the other league. During the early 60s, teams saw the value computer technology could have in amassing prospect data, but the cost of mainframes was so high no NFL team could afford one.

Further, without any networking or mobile computing, the cost of amassing and transmitting the data was even more prohibitive. The teams pooled scouting resources and information, and former Steelers defensive back Jack Butler compiled reports from dozens of scouts, assigned composite grades, and distributed BLESTO as it was renamed when the Bears joined grades to all the participating teams. The pooling of scouts, coaches, front office staff and media in one location turned the behind-the-scenes business of scouting into an anticipated event.

The soaring popularity of the NFL meant there was huge pent-up demand for offseason football news. ESPN sensed an opportunity. The NFL was flummoxed by the request; the Annual Player Selection Meeting was just as it had been in a bunch of old guys in a hotel ballroom.