Ed Marinaro NFL draft pick speech goes on so long he’s told to wrap it up now

Ex Minnesota Viking Ed Marinaro had the honor of announcing the 42nd pick at the 2022 NFL Draft, with his former team making the choice.

That this was going to be no ordinary announcement was clear from the start when Marinaro, who took to acting after his pro football career, took his time walking out, then gazed out over the crowd for rather longer than might be expected before raising his arm and giving the waiting crowd a slightly wobbly thumbs up. And then he finally started speaking.

And speak he did.

He started off by being excited at the number of people at this year’s draft, “This is crazy! We didn’t have this many people when I played in the Super Bowl!” He then proceeded to tell us that “finding a Viking purple sport coat is not easy”, but hoped we’d appreciated the effort. He then regaled the fans waiting to hear the pick with a lovely tale about how he’d heard he’d been drafted 50 years ago while sitting in his little apartment in Ithaca New York.

Marinaro on his own draft 50 years ago

He then dangerously went on to to admit that there was only one team he wanted to be drafted by less than the Vikings, “but I’m not going to mention Green Bay”. “I see those cheese heads over there!” he slammed, to some laughter.

As the speech showed no signs of getting anywhere near the pick eventually an NFL producer ran out and pointed directly at the pick card to tell Marinaro to JUST GET ON WITH IT.

To be fair to him he reacted graciously, first he laughed, then jokingly shouted “NO!” and only then did he finally give us what we’d been waiting for: “With the 42nd pick in the 2022 NFL Draft the Minnesota Vikings select defensive back Andrew Booth from Clemson. " The crowd roared, but it wasn’t clear if it was for Booth or Marinaro finally wrapping things up.

And with one final raise of his fist Marinaro headed off…

Twitter reacts to Marinaro

And of course Twitter reacted:

Who was MVP of the day?