Mike Greenberg Demands Significant Change To NFL Draft Rules
Mike Greenberg is demanding a significant change to the NFL Draft rules.
Greenberg once again served as the host of the NFL Draft on ESPN. Greenberg teamed up with Booger McFarland, Louis Riddick and Mel Kiper Jr. to cover the NFL Draft for ESPN on Thursday evening.
But Greenberg ended up making an unfortunate mistake. He wrongly referred to a Cleveland Browns' draft pick as the son of former NFL great David Boston.
""The Cleveland Browns traded out of the spot (pick No. 74) just a moment ago," Greenberg said. "I was waiting for them to come around again so that I could make an apology to Denzel Boston, who, earlier tonight, I misidentified as being the son of former NFL wide receiver David Boston. It was a mistake in my research. It was a terrible one, and I apologize to them both. They are not related to each other. And so I apologize to both David and Denzel Boston, and congratulations to Denzel for being drafted in the second round tonight by the Cleveland Browns. It is my mistake, and I apologize for it."
Greenberg owned up to his mistake, but now, he's pushing for a significant rules change.
The ESPN host wants to be able to call a "timeout" during the NFL Draft, a couple of times per round.
Greenberg's rules change suggestion
Greenberg thinks the host of the NFL Draft should be able to stop things to talk about them in greater detail.
"I do think there were a few moments in the draft that, maybe demand is too strong a word, but certainly suggest, that we should pause and reflect on it for a moment," said Greenberg to Rich Eisen. "So when Jeremiyah Love goes 3, when you have running back going 3, that high, to a team like the Arizona Cardinals, it would be nice for a week if we could just say, ‘Alright, hold on, we're calling our- we get like 2 timeouts."
"Oh, as a broadcast?" Eisen responded. "We can stop the clock."
"Okay, just put Tennessee on pause for just a minute. We need three minutes to talk about this," added Greenberg. "And then the same thing at 13. Ty Simpson just went 13 to the Rams. This is reminiscent of Tommy Maddox getting drafted and John Elway being all upset about it and Dan Reeves ultimately leaving there… and the Rams making what was clearly the signature decision of Night 1, as we had 45 seconds to talk about the impact of it before I hear in my ear, '30 seconds until commercial.'
"So I'd liked to have been able to call a timeout right there and say, ‘We need two minutes to discuss this.' Most of it I think we could just roll along. There were a few moments that I thought it would have been nice to have a little extra time."
The main problem, of course, is that the NFL Draft airs on three different networks. Do all three networks get to call timeouts? Or just ESPN?
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This story was originally published April 26, 2026 at 11:00 AM.