He’s still a kidder at heart

 Editor’s note: Irrelevant Week is in its 34th year and throughout that time Paul Salata has seen his wacky idea grow from a baby to a full-grown adult.

It remains silly, yet refreshing: the goal to celebrate the underdog, the final pick of the NFL Draft.

This year it’s Ryan Succop, a kicker selected by the Kansas City Chiefs.

Irrelevant Week begins Monday in Newport Beach. Salata and his daughter Melanie Salata-Fitch, the event’s CEO, have been anticipating the week.

Recently, Salata, 82, took a break from Irrelevant Week planning to talk about the event’s history and where the concept is going.

Check out a feature on Salata in Sunday’s edition of the Daily Pilot.

This Q & A was provided by the Irrelevant Week staff.

Question: Whose idea was all of this anyway? How did it come about?

Answer: Mostly, it was my idea. I noticed how people going to halls of fame always thanked the little guy who helped them along the way. But nobody ever honors them. So, I got to thinking: Who’s the ultimate underdog? It’s the last guy picked in the NFL draft. You know, what’s wrong with doing something nice for someone for no reason?

Q: Did you think Irrelevant Week would be a one-time event, or did you foresee it going on as long as it has?

A: Hope and expectation are two different things. We hoped it would go. But we were prepared for what to do if it didn’t work. The first guy picked was by the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I had been a Pittsburgh Steeler for a few minutes. The kid who was the last player picked, Kelvin Kirk, was reluctant — “Whoa, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Then we got Mr. Art Rooney, the Steelers owner, to call and tell him it’s on the up and up and you’re going to have a good time.

Q: How did the NFL first react to the Irrelevant Week concept?

A: I talked to Pete Rozelle about it and he said, “That would be great.” He liked the idea.

Q: Has there ever been a Mr. Irrelevant who expressed reluctance to accept the throne?

A: Not seriously. As soon as Melanie gets on the phone and says, “Disneyland and yachting and surfing and Miss Newport” then it’s on. We had one who brought his wife, who tried to take over and wanted to be co-honoree, but we’re not honoring the wives. One guy, Tyrone McGriff in 1980, went to Canada because he thought he was going to be drafted into the Army, so we brought the next-to-last pick, Kevin Scanlon. No, actually McGriff got a better deal playing football in Canada and they start their camp and season very early.

Q: Is there a fine line between honoring Mr. Irrelevant and perhaps going a bit too far and making it a dishonorable event?

A: It’s always in good taste. This year’s theme is “Successful Underdogs” for example. It’s real obvious that we’re kidding. We work hard on kidding.

Q: Who has been the best sport among the Mr. Irrelevant honorees?

A: There have been more popular ones and less popular ones. This Cowboy player we had, we took him to Hollywood Park and they named a race after him. The horse that won was called Cowboy Prize and he said, “Boy you guys are really powerful!” Like we fixed the race, or something.

Q: Did you ever consider spreading Mr. Irrelevant outside of football, to maybe the last player picked in the NBA draft? Or maybe even the last soldier drafted for World War II?

A: We got close to that a couple times. The Desert Storm guys coming back, the last guy to come back was a Sgt. Whitaker and we brought him here.

We brought in the last guy in the baseball draft, the 1,256th pick or whatever, and we took him to the baseball game and had him drag the field between innings.

We had the guy who was the bottom of his class at Annapolis come out here. They call that last guy the Anchor Man. But, hey, he did graduate.

Q: How far in advance must the planning begin for Irrelevant Week?

A: We start in January, and get things into place. Then we tweak things when we find out who we’ve got coming.

Q: Has there ever been a grand scheme for an Irrelevant Week that you just could not pull off?

A: Nothing at all. We have a motto: “Forgiveness is easier to get than permission.” We had a guy who we had land on the golf course in a helicopter at the Newport Beach Golf Course, which is under the air space where the planes take off and land at John Wayne Airport and we weren’t supposed to do that.

Q: How long will Irrelevant Week go on?

A: We’re in the process of getting sanctioned by the league and we think it’s going to go. If they endorse it and let us use the official NFL shield, then it’s just like the Hall of Fame and the draft is to the NFL, and it can go on forever. When that happens, it will be good for underdogs everywhere.