For coverage of the NFL Draft, both ESPN and NFL Network "will have broadcast positions in Grant Park along with their traditional sets inside the Auditorium Theatre," according to Ed Sherman of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. The Draft begins tonight at 8:00pm ET, and NFL Network Coordinating Producer Charlie Yook said, "Chicago is going to be a main character in our coverage of the draft. This thing is bigger than just football this year." But ESPN Senior Coordinating Producer Seth Markman said that ESPN "won't go overboard with the Chicago angle, working it in 'organically.'" He added that the main priority "will be the business at hand: selecting the players who will shape the future of the NFL." Sherman noted Pro Football HOFer and Bears legend Dick Butkus "will be featured on the voiceover for NFL Network's open" (CHICAGOTRIBUNE.com, 4/29). NFL VP/Broadcasting Onnie Bose said that one of the "overarching goals of moving to Chicago -- or out of New York -- was to engage fans more significantly than they had before." He added that the Saturday portion of the draft "has always been an issue because the theater experience didn’t produce great visuals for later rounds." Bose: "If you were watching it on television, it really was a bunch of talking heads. ... So when the decision was made to take it out of New York we thought, How do we keep the elevated stature of Thursday and Friday night and create opportunity for Saturday?" Bose "cited the energy of ESPN’s College GameDay as the template the league desires, and it was NFL execs who pushed the networks to air from an outside venue on the third day" (MMQB.SI.com, 4/29).
RAGS TO RICHES: The CHICAGO TRIBUNE's Sherman wrote ESPN's early coverage of the Draft, which dates back to '80, "laid the roots for what will be a three-day, high-tech extravaganza in Chicago this week." ESPN's early association with the draft "enabled the struggling network to gain an important foothold in the market." It also transformed the NFL "from a six-month, game-driven league to a year-round obsession about who's going to be taken No. 1." ESPN Exec VP/Production & Programming John Wildhack said, "The draft helped put ESPN on the map. It helped the NFL become more than just a fall sport" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 4/27).
FIRST ASSIGNMENT: The Rams hired Univ. of Tennessee reporter Dani Klupenger for the same position. She will make her debut at the team's Draft party tonight at Ballpark Village in St. Louis (Rams).
