Over the past few years, Rece Davis has hosted the NFL Draft coverage on ABC with the rest of the College GameDay crew. This year will be the fifth year that Davis leads the coverage that is a little different than the traditional broadcast on ESPN because it dives into the journeys of the players that are having their dream become a reality.
On the latest episode of the ESPN College GameDay podcast, Davis mentioned that the broadcast has received some criticism in recent years with some saying the stories have become way too sad and there were a lot of difficult stories.
“We got some criticism a couple of years ago because they said everything was sad and despondent in terms of the backstories. I think what happens is when you go in and interview players and you dig stuff up and you ask them ‘What’s the most significant thing in your life? What has led you to this moment?’, the human mind automatically goes to some type of obstacle that you’ve overcome. Because of that, we ended up with a lot of difficult stories about losing a loved one or some type of family problem that a player had had coming up.”
Davis mentioned that the ABC broadcast is designed to be different than ESPN because of research that has been done that people who watch the broadcast aren’t necessarily die-hard football fans.
“The traditional coverage on ESPN is more ‘He’s a three-technique, he’s going to fit into that scheme, they will use him this way’. On ABC, our mandate and charge has been to put more of the focus on the personal backstories and telling you a little bit about the guys because it has been shown according to research that at least a significant portion of the ABC audience is not necessarily hardcore football guys. They tune in to watch Grey’s Anatomy or something and goodness the draft is pre-empting my show and you want to give them a reason to watch as well.”
Due to hearing some of the criticism, Davis said that more of the stories are going to have a positive tone to them, in addition to the ones where players have to overcome obstacles to achieve their ultimate goal.
“We learned from that and so many more of the stories will be uplifting and fun in addition to telling stories about obstacles and problems that players have overcome to reach that dream night of hearing their name called in the NFL Draft. It will also be an opportunity for you to get to know them on a personal level a little bit and certainly, we will talk about how they fit in with your favorite team.”
The 2023 NFL Draft will take place in Kansas City, Missouri on Thursday, April 27.