NFL insiders facing tough call over No. 1 pick dilemma

To tip or not to tip, the TV drama of the NFL Draft.

There may be no place more where journalism meets the business of TV than the draft, which led to a public disagreement over the reportage of the No. 1 pick between NBC Sports’ NFL insider Mike Florio, ESPN’s NFL info man Chris Mortensen and the head of ESPN’s production of the NFL Draft, Seth Markman.

This has long been a point of concern for the draft shows that came to its hilarious apex last June during the NBA’s version when ESPN’s NBA insider, Adrian Wojnarowski, used code words in saying the first round picks before they were officially announced.

Now, with the NFL Draft upon us, Mortensen and teammate Adam Schefter, along with NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, are on center stage. Are they there just for business or journalism?

“Neither NFL Network nor ESPN has been directed not to report on who might be the No. 1 pick,” an NFL spokesman said.

That is a sports TV question, because breaking something that is about to be announced moments later is not exactly akin to the sports Pentagon Papers, but if your reporters are just part of a show, then are they reporters? For the TV drama, it is better if there is mystery.

It is all a part of the complicated ESPN and NFL relationship and another sidebar to NFL Draft coverage.

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