ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. stands out among draft analysts for not owning a cellphone—a fact that his longtime colleague Todd McShay shared in a recent Barstool Sports interview.
Kiper is reachable only through a landline, and any texts meant for him actually go to his wife, Kim.
McShay humorously noted, “I’ve got one, two, three, four different numbers for Mel. And if I want to text—if I want to get through to Mel… it’s to Kim [his wife]! And the problem is you call the house and Kim will pick up and be like ‘Hey!’ and I’ll talk to Kim for like 10 minutes before I even get to Mel. And then Mel will pick up from a different landline… it’s like back in the 80s, definitely a throwback to my childhood.”
It’s quite remarkable how Kiper manages to stay informed and remain a leading draft expert, especially when compared to colleagues like Adam Schefter, who receive updates on their cellphones minute-by-minute live on-air. Nevertheless, Kiper’s method seems to work well for him, keeping him as the go-to expert for many football fans across the country.
One can’t help but wonder about the size of that phone bill, though…
