Mel Kiper Jr.'s Odd Home Phone Setup Hilariously Confirmed by Todd McShay

Patrick Andres | Apr 23, 2024

Apr 28, 2011; New York, NY, USA; ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. / Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Like almost no other personality in sports media, ESPN NFL draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. projects the air of a man out of time. He comes to us from the era of dialing opaque phone numbers for sports information, when $400 wasn't an unreasonable one-and-done rate for a national cable appearance.

The only thing that has changed around him is the draft, which he helped popularize—but given the thoroughness of his early analyses, has it really changed for him?

On Monday's edition of Pardon My Take, longtime associate Todd McShay eagerly confirmed rumors of Kiper's Luddism, telling Dan Katz that the draftnik owned five landlines.

"I’ve got one, two, three, four different numbers for Mel," McShay said. "And if I want to get through to Mel—look all these texts—it’s to (Kiper's wife) Kim. And Kim writes back, ‘Hey, Todd, how are you? Yeah, I’ll ask him. I’m sure he’ll get back to you tonight.’"

Hilariously, that does not seem to be where the confusion ends for McShay.

"And then Mel will pick up from a different landline, right? It’s not like a cell phone at home. It’s like back in the (1980s) when you hear a phone, ‘Hey, Todd, how are you? What’s going on?’" McShay said. "It’s definitely a throwback to my childhood… I just picture Kiper pacing with the cord getting stuck around him."

Mel Kiper Jr. still has no cellphone but has 4 different landlines in his house @PardonMyTake pic.twitter.com/hEBvmVja7L

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) April 22, 2024

Amazing.