TOWSON, MD—Despite the daily stresses of analyzing the upcoming NFL Draft, Mel Kiper, Jr. still finds time to toss the old spreadsheet around with his teenage daughter, the ESPN analyst said Friday. "It's easy for a busy parent to get caught up with work and miss what's really important," said Kiper, who fondly recalls throwing around accounting worksheets as a child with his own father. "She may say it's 'lame' that I still ask her to pull an old, broken-in printout of football statistics out of the garage and join me in the backyard for a game of catch, but deep down, she knows she'll remember the feel of the fading ink rubbing on her hands and the bond we formed here forever." Kiper then adjusted his hair and tie and returned to the dank, unadorned condominium filled with computer terminals and stacks of scouting reports where he lives alone.

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