ESPN's 19th annual coverage of the NFL Draft will
feature 17 hours of coverage on Saturday and Sunday on ESPN
and ESPN2. ESPN's "War Room Cams" and Sprint's video-
conferencing technology will provide live coverage from more
than two-thirds of team headquarters. ESPN and ESPN Radio
will air the first two rounds Saturday from 1:00-7:00pm ET,
with ESPN2 picking up the remainder from 7:00-10:00pm ET.
Sunday, ESPN will broadcast live from 11:00am-1:00pm ET,
with ESPN2 completing the Draft coverage. ESPNEWS will
provide updates throughout the day (ESPN). In Baltimore,
Milton Kent reports ESPN's coverage of the '97 NFL Draft
drew a cumulative 4.1 rating, just higher than the TN-ODU
women's basketball championship game -- which was ESPN's
highest rated NCAA basketball game (male or female) since
'90 (Milton Kent, Baltimore SUN, 4/17).
ONE-ON-ONE DRAFT: The One-On-One Sports radio network
will broadcast its "NFL Draft Special Edition" from 12:00-
7:00pm ET on Saturday and 1:00-7:00pm ET Sunday. One-On-One
personalities will host the coverage. Mark May and
Newsday's Bob Glauber will provide analysis (One-On-One).
ONLINE NOTES: Sprint and Miller Lite are two of the
sponsors for ESPN Internet Ventures' and NFL Interactive's
online Draft coverage on ESPN SportsZone. Miller Lite
sponsors "DraftCentral," while Sprint sponsors the
"DraftTracker" (AD AGE, 4/14)....MSNBCsports.com offers its
"NFL Draft Headquarters" with analysis by Boston Globe NFL
writer Ron Borges (MSNBC)....Athlete Direct launched its NFL
Draft War Room. The site is exclusive to AOL members at
keyword, "Athlete Direct." Drew Bledsoe will be part of a
chat session on Monday from 8:00-9:00pm ET (Athlete Direct).
...Other sites include The Sporting News, www.sportingnews.
com/nfl/draft; CNN/SI, cnnsi.com/football/nfl/warroom/ 1998;
Springfield Draft, www.erols.com/sdp1/ main.htm; Mel Kiper,
www.melkiper.com (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 4/17).
