Irrelevant Week, Paul Salata’s brainchild, lives on through daughter’s efforts

For parts of five decades, the NFL draft was not complete until Paul Salata approached the microphone to announce the final pick of the draft.

Salata enjoyed celebrating the underdog, and since 1976, the last player to be selected in the draft has received the attention and adulation afforded to a first-round pick. All chosen in that slot since have held the title of Mr. Irrelevant.

Although Salata had not traveled to the draft for some time, his daughter Melanie Salata-Fitch has continued to attend the draft to tell football fans everywhere who the next member of the fraternity will be.

The 2022 NFL Draft, which ran Thursday through Saturday in Las Vegas, marked the first time that father and daughter could not share in the experience together. Salata died Oct. 16, one day shy of his 95th birthday. He played wide receiver at USC and then in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers, the Baltimore Colts and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Melanie Salata-Fitch, CEO of Irrelevant Week, throws a football at the Irrelevant Week office in Newport Beach.

(Spencer Grant)

“I’ll probably just stay focused on the pick, because if I think about Dad, I get emotional,” Salata-Fitch, who turned 67 on Monday, said ahead of the draft. “Usually, when I make the announcement, I say, ‘Hey Dad, wake up. It’s the last pick,’ so I won’t say that. He hasn’t been going for several years, so it won’t be … that weird that he’s not standing there.

“The commissioner, [Roger Goodell], called on the day that he passed away, and the NFL has been really nice.”

Salata-Fitch is the chief executive of Irrelevant Week, held annually in Newport Beach to honor the incoming Mr. Irrelevant. It includes a whole host of activities, including charitable works and the Lowsman Banquet, for which the community comes out to roast and toast the newest member of the exclusive club.

Involved in Irrelevant Week since its inception, Salata-Fitch has never wavered in her enthusiasm for one of the week’s overriding themes — doing something nice for someone for no reason.

Melanie Salata-Fitch pretends to take a call from a phone shaped like a San Francisco 49er football helmet.

(Spencer Grant)

“I always helped my dad with his different projects and things that he did, and so when he started Irrelevant Week, it was a natural transition to help him plan Irrelevant Week,” Salata-Fitch said. “We always liked football because dad played football. We were a football family, and so to be able to honor the last selection in the draft was exciting for me. It made sense to me that the last guy should be honored as much as the first guy.”

A graduate of Corona del Mar High School, Salata-Fitch is still amazed by the way her hometown has embraced Irrelevant Week. While she said Newport Beach is an easy sell to get Mr. Irrelevant to come out to each year, the community has shown its support in a variety of ways. Newport Beach mayors have been known to give Mr. Irrelevant the key to the city.

“I’m surprised that it’s embraced as such a big deal,” Salata-Fitch said. “We would have done it whether we got recognition or not. My dad wanted to make sure that it stayed in Newport Beach because he loves Newport Beach. That’s his home. That’s his friends. I grew up here.”

The pomp and circumstance of Irrelevant Week will push forward despite the loss of its founder, Salata-Fitch added. She said the Cannery, which hosted the Lowsman Banquet last year, is hopeful to have it again.

Melanie Salata-Fitch dresses a USC Trojans prop up in the Mr. Irrelevant jersey.

(Spencer Grant)

Many remember Salata, who continued to make regular appearances at Irrelevant Week festivities well into his twilight years, for his cutting-edge humor.

“Paul could tell any story and make it more interesting and funny than any standup comic,” Wayne Smith, a Newport Beach resident and Irrelevant Week supporter, said. “At the end of the day, I wish I could meet someone with half his character. It would truly make the world a better place.”

Smith, who hosts a barbecue on the beach as part of Irrelevant Week each year, added of the late Salata that he had a passion to “help everyone, no matter who they were.”

Once Irrelevant Week has come and gone, Salata-Fitch said many a Mr. Irrelevant become friends for life. She said Tevita Ofahengaue — taken with the last pick by the Arizona Cardinals in 2001 — reached out to ask if she needed someone to make the announcement at the draft this year. She politely declined.

“I’d say it’s a brotherhood,” Salata-Fitch said, before pointing out that she, in fact, is a woman.

That’s irrelevant to those who know her and who are happy that the tradition of honoring the underdog lives on through her efforts.

“If anybody could carry on the tradition of Irrelevant Week post-Paul Salata, it would be his daughter,” Chris Wynkoop, a friend of the Salata family and a past member of the Irrelevant Week planning committee, said. “She possesses the same wit and humor of Paul and has inherited his unique ability to humor and hold a crowd during the presentation of the honors to Mr. Irrelevant.”

Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.