Classic: ‘Who the hell is Mel Kiper?’

The NFL draft is tomorrow, and much like the tradition of telling “The Christmas Carol” every year, we must recall the most memorable moment in ESPN’s draft history.

Bill Tobin’s rant of “Who the hell is Mel Kiper” is a classic from the 1994 draft. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the original video from the former Colts’ GM going off the one with big hair.

But I did find a couple of other interesting videos.

For starters, here’s the segment that started it all. At around the two-minute mark, Chris Berman throws it over to Kiper to get his assessment of the Colts selecting Nebraska linebacker Trev Alberts.

Kiper comes out firing, saying “Give me a break.” Then he buries Tobin with his immortal line: “This is why the Colts are drafting second every year and not battling for the Super Bowl.”

However, what’s forgotten in this segment is that Joe Theismann completely supports Kiper.

“This is one time I have to agree with Mel,” Theismann said. “It doesn’t make sense to me. I can’t understand the pick.”

Theismann, though, was a former player. So Tobin didn’t aim his barbs at him. Instead, he went after Tobin.

Tobin, meanwhile, continued to rant about Kiper when he later met with reporters. SportsCenter ran a full two minutes of Tobin’s press conference (an eternity), which begins around the 40-second mark.

“What do you want to talk about first,” Tobin said. “Our players or that jerk in Baltimore?”

It went downhill from there.

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “Classic: ‘Who the hell is Mel Kiper?’

  1. the battle between Colts’ VP Bill Tobin vs. Mel Kiper in ’94. It was great theater.

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