Mel Kiper's 2011 NFL Mock Draft coverage is among the most trusted in the industry, but I'm officially less than enamored of his instinct on commercial plugs and movies—the ESPN would-be sports-journalist is appearing in a mid-draft set of plugs in which he's watching "game film" of his real number-one pick, the movie Fast and Furious 5. I don't expect the Carolina Panthers to pick a movie instead of a player when the draft happens, but I could yet be proven wrong.
↵I have to think that Todd McShay pushed him into this. McShay's been waiting for Kiper to become irrelevant ever since he lined up behind that famous hair as the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network's number-two NFL Draft 2011 expert. Plugging a movie with Vin Diesel in it is perhaps the quickest way to do that.
↵As for the effect of movies being added to the NFL Draft big board, I think the immediate one is this: The Carolina Panthers will select Citizen Kane, even though they don't really enjoy it all that much, and the rest of the teams will nod appreciatively but secretly be relieved about it.
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