SOME PEOPLE BLAME ESPN's Mel Kiper for John Walsh's draft-day disaster, and others blame John Walsh himself, but there's really no need to argue. There's plenty of blame to go around for everyone, so just wait your turn.
The NCAA should get a large portion of blame. Pass a slice of blame to the NFL, too. And let's not forget Walsh's agent, or any agent who ever made a phone call to Walsh.But let's start with Mel Kiper - whoever he is - just because, well, he asked for it. Following December's Copper Bowl, Kiper - the so-called "draft guru" - said that Walsh would be among the first five players chosen in the 1995 NFL Draft, and possibly the No. 1 pick overall. He assured us that Walsh was the No. 1 quarterback prospect.
Less than a month ago, when reports surfaced that scouts were using a sun dial to time Walsh's 40-yard dashes, Kiper backed off some, but he still predicted that Walsh would be the 23rd pick of the first round. All along Kiper said Walsh would be one of the top three or four quarterbacks picked in the draft.
Some guru. Walsh was the 213th player picked in Sunday's draft. He was finally taken in the seventh and final round. Thirteen quarterbacks were chosen ahead of him.
So what's the harm in Kiper's predictions? It's all just for fun, trying to predict the draft, right? Maybe not. Not when players such as Walsh bank their future - wisely or unwisely - on what people like Kiper say. And they do.
Kiper, who is really just a glorified fan with a microphone, is billed as a draft expert and gets a national platform on ESPN. So college players are bound to listen to him, even if, in the words of one college coach, NFL people consider Kiper a joke.
"No question about it; this (Walsh's case) is a classic example of that," says BYU head coach LaVell Edwards of Kiper's influence.
"Kiper is to blame," says BYU quarterback coach Norm Chow. "Not totally. But he certainly influenced (Walsh) . . . Because of Kiper and people like him, people like Walsh drop out of college. (Players) put their hopes in rumors and opinions and guesswork of people who have no stake in it."
You can bet, for instance, that the agents who contacted Walsh advised him to leave school a year early for the draft. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
But of all the parties who share the blame in this matter, most of it falls on the NCAA, which has created a system that fosters hearsay and mystery. NCAA rules require a non-senior player to declare his eligibility for the draft, and once he does so there is no changing his mind, no returning to his college team.
Thus, a player must guess where he will be chosen in the draft to determine if it's worthwhile to give up his college eligibility, with the first round meaning millions of dollars and the seventh round meaning little chance of making the team. But this is where it gets tricky. NFL teams can't share their secrets for obvious reasons, and they don't know how other teams will draft anyway. So draft prospects are left to listen to a Mel Kiper or agents and what other bits of heresay they can find.
The NFL has tried to address this problem by creating the College Advisory Committee, which is composed of scouts and team officials. College players can solicit an opinion from the committee on their potential in the coming NFL draft, but again it is only guesswork. The committee told Walsh in January that he was a potential first- or second-round pick.
The NCAA could stop putting players in this ridiculous situation and end the guessing game of agents, committees and Mel Kipers simply by changing its rules. It should allow the NFL to draft whomever it wants, and then let the players decide if they want to turn professional (based on their draft position) or return to school. It works in baseball.
Move the NFL Draft to February and the college signing day to April to give schools time to recruit a replacement for a player who opts for the NFL. Both sides should cooperate and work for a solution. The NFL has a free farm system in the NCAA, and the NCAA has an employer for its athletes in the NFL.
What happened to Walsh should never happen again. Of course Walsh himself bears part of the blame. He should have stayed in school. The money would have been there a year later. But what's fair about a kid being enticed to leave school for a job he thinks will pay him millions of dollars only to find out it was all a mirage.
Now Walsh is stuck. There's no reclaiming his senior season. Instead of gaining playing experience and perhaps raising his stock for the next draft, he'll either stand on the sidelines for the Cincinnati Bengals next season or join the ranks of former football players.
Not all is lost. Walsh's predecessor, Ty Detmer, was a ninth-round pick and he's still in the NFL. There is a similar opportunity for Walsh with quarterback-poor Cincinnati. But it's clearly not what he expected.