Rich Eisen Has A Problem With Reporters Who Leak Picks On Twitter During The NFL Draft

NFL Network host Rich Eisen doesn't understand the benefit of revealing draft picks early.

Rich Eisen is not a fan of NFL reporters tweeting draft picks before they are announced on television.

Obviously, Eisen has a dog in the fight since he hosts the NFL Network's draft coverage, and will once again do so next Thursday.

Appearing on the latest episode of the SI Media Podcast, Eisen explained how he handles being on the air while picks are being leaked on Twitter.

"I'm not looking at my Twitter feed. I don’t want to know. None of us want to know. [Mike] Mayock and I and everybody on the set have made a specific, explicit decision that we want to be as surprised as you at home, assuming you don’t know. Now, that may be old school, that may be putting head in the sand, thinking that we’re the most immediate disseminator of information on draft night, fully knowing that we are not. I get it. But I’m not on my Twitter feed. I’m not doing a wink and a nod. I don’t want to be accused ever of tipping a pick and ruining it because for me to do that, I don’t need the personal kudos or feather in my cap on my Twitter account that I know first. I don’t care. The bottom line is this, it is a show. We are putting on a show. The league is putting on a show. We are doing this in a football stadium for a reason. It is a show. It is an experience, a spectacle, an event."

Asked if he has a problem with NFL reporters leaking the picks on Twitter prior to the commissioner revealing them at the podium, Eisen did not hold back.

"Of course I have a problem with that," he answered, "because we’re all in the same boat here. … On Thursday night next week, everybody is going to stop to watch a three-and-a-half-hour show basically reading off names on a list. That’s what it is. It’s the only the event on a sports calendar where the main participants aren’t even in the building, and I’m not just meaning that Baker Mayfield’s not showing up. The decision makers aren’t even there. They’re phoning it in. In this day and age, we could just do this like a fantasy draft on an encrypted website, point and click on who you want and be done with this thing behind the scenes in two-and-a-half hours. We’re all doing this because it raises an interest level of a golden sports television goose that benefits everybody. The fact that somebody’s tweeting out that the pick’s already made -- for what? So you get more followers for your account?"

Eisen continued, "I don’t begrudge [the reporters]. But if that is the way this information is gonna be disseminated, than draft night’s done. It’s finished. As a show."

You can hear the full interview with Eisen beginning at the 40-minute mark below.

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