Stories about NFL Draft aficionado Mel Kiper’s cell phone usage have become the stuff of legends since his old ESPN pal Todd McShay exposed his odd habits about one year ago. But we haven’t heard directly from Kiper himself, until now.
The veteran draft analyst has taken a decidedly different approach to cell phone usage than his peers: he rarely checks it. That’s shocking in today’s fast-moving information age, but perhaps a bit more tenable if you’re a film-crunching draft specialist like Kiper.
But while appearing on the SI Media with Jimmy Traina podcast, Kiper had to make some record corrections to McShay’s year-ago claims. When McShay told the Pardon My Take guys about Kiper’s phone usage, he suggested that Kiper didn’t have a cell phone at all. Instead, he used four separate landlines. That, according to Kiper, isn’t actually the case.
“Todd was inaccurate on that critique,” Kiper said. “I have a cell phone.”
The catch? He doesn’t really check it. Maybe once per day at home, and a little bit more frequently if he’s on the road.
“I have (wife) Kim’s cell phone that I use a lot because those texts come to both of us, and I have my own cell phone that I stash away that I bring to the draft or when I go out or wherever I go, I’ll take that with me. But it’s not always sitting next to me. There’s no cell phone sitting here. There’s never a cell phone around me. Never,” Kiper explained.
“I don’t want to be distracted by it,” he continued. “Nobody needs me that desperately. If they do, Kim is right there if there’s anything important there. But when I’m working, I’m working. I don’t want to have a phone to worry about. Or somebody texting me. I do worry about emails. As you know, at ESPN, I get a lot of emails. Questions about what may be happening, that they need answers for a segment we’re doing. Emails I do have to be checking every hour or two. But texts and calls, I have a landline still, Jimmy. If there’s an important call, it’s coming through the landline.
“The text messages I’ll worry about at the end of the day to see which ones are important,” Kiper concluded. “But, no, on a regular basis, throughout the course of the day, I don’t want a cell phone anywhere near me.”
Kiper likely picked the right niche for his phone habits. Unless it’s draft day, not too many people need to contact him urgently. His job doesn’t require all that much communication. Watch film. Break down and rate prospects. Talk about it on television.
It seems like he’s cracked the code.
Other insiders complain about their screen time. Adam Schefter brings his phone into the shower with him, and Shams Charania can approach 20 hours of phone usage per day during the height of NBA free agency.
Kiper? He’s walking to the beat of his own drum and probably healthier for it.
