Draft-week darling Annie Apple lands gig with ESPN

One of the biggest stars of NFL Draft weekend this year wasn't a player; it was a player's mom.

Annie Apple, mother of cornerback and New York Giants first-round pick Eli, became a media darling for her no-nonsense style and her refusal to coddle her star son, both of which are on display on her Twitter feed and personal blog.

Apple, who has a background in broadcasting, has been interviewed extensively since, and on Monday, we learned she won't be fading to the background now that the draft afterglow is starting to fade: she's been hired by ESPN to work as a contributor on NFL Sunday Countdown.

And her first tweet after the news came out shows exactly why:

How can you not love this woman?

In subsequent tweets, Apple thanked Seth Markman, senior coordinating producer for ESPN's NFL studio shows, for "giving me platform to (represent) sports moms' perspectives, contributions, fantastic awkwardness to viewers worldwide" and tells "the truthers" that she has degrees in television production and English so "not only am I quasi cute, I'm semi smart."

Markman explained why the network hired Apple in the story on espn.com.

"Annie caught our attention during the NFL Draft, and when we met her in-person at ESPN, we were blown away by her relatability, her sense of humor and just how unafraid she is to speak her mind," he said. "Annie brings a very unique perspective as the mother of a current NFL player and as a fan, and we look forward to exploring a variety of different story ideas with her on Sunday NFL Countdown."

After the Giants' on-field OTA practice Monday, Eli Apple said he expects his mother to stay the same woman she's always been.

"She's not going to change," Eli said. "She was like this way back when I was in high school. She's not going to do anything different."