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Mel Kiper has been a staple of ESPN’s coverage of the NFL Draft for more than four decades, and he covered the event for the 43rd year in a row when it descended upon Pittsburgh last week. The analyst lives for that three-day event, and he managed to extend a very impressive streak while staying glued to the desk during the broadcast.
Based on how big of a spectacle the NFL Draft has become, it’s kind of hard to believe there was once a time when the annual selection ceremony was a bit of a footnote on the league’s calendar. However, the tides began to turn in the 1990s, and you can’t talk about that development without discussing the contributions of Mel Kiper.
The longtime analyst became obsessed with scouting players when he was in high school, and he eventually leveraged his talents to land a gig with ESPN ahead of the NFL Draft in 1984.
His influence has waned a bit as other people who’ve followed the trail he blazed have managed to cement themselves as more authoritative figures in the draft space, but he’s still going strong with The Worldwide Leaders more than 40 years after he linked up with the network.
He was one of the dozens of broadcasters who contributed to the coverage of the event last week, and he once again refused to let basic bodily functions get in the way of doing his job.
Mel Kiper has not taken a bathroom break while covering the NFL Draft 43 years in a row
Kiper was on the ground in Pittsburgh last week for the 2026 NFL Draft, and he spent three days breaking down the picks made by the NFL teams who selected a grand total of 257 players over the course of seven rounds.
The first round officially kicked off on Thursday night and lasted for two hours and 53 minutes. It took a little more than four hours for the second and third ones to wrap up on Friday, and approximately seven hours transpired between the first pick of the fourth round and the final one of the seventh on Saturday.
Kiper got the chance to reflect on the event while chatting with Field Yates and Adam Schefter on the latter’s podcast, and he went out of his way to let the world know that it marked the 43rd year in a row he was able to fulfill his broadcast duties without stepping away for a single bathroom break.
After last week’s NFL draft, sports’ single most impressive streak still remains intact: @MelKiperESPN now has gone 43 straight NFL drafts without taking a single bathroom break. Not one.
🎧 https://t.co/13pwuIpAEb pic.twitter.com/hLGsRW8Gqp
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 27, 2026
Schefter praised the 65-year-old for managing to keep the streak intact despite the bladder issues that tend to become more of an issue as you age, and Kiper quipped, “I don’t know what the future holds. I just go year-to-year at this stage.”
His actual predictions may leave a bit to be desired, but you do have to give him some credit where credit is due for his resilience.