The National Football League will hold the 2020 Draft completely online in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In preparation for the unprecedented event, which will see decision-makers from all 32 teams making picks while quarantined in their respective homes, the league on Monday held a trial run to make sure the required technology was in place before the real thing Thursday night.
Early reports are that it did not get off to a good start.
Text from a participant on the NFL’s mock draft that started at 1 pm EST. “Mock draft today already technical glitch w Cincinnatis 1st pick!!! Brutal.”
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 20, 2020
Identifying and ironing out technical issues is, of course, the whole reason for a practice draft. The league has never tried anything quite like this before; it’s a whole new ballgame for the general managers making the picks from their respective homes, too. A first-of-its-kind conference call with 32 participants was bound to experience exactly the kinds of issues one would expect.
I’m texting with multiple coaches and GM’s who are on this mock draft call and everybody is saying the same thing which is band width is a problem. There are many communication issues.
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) April 20, 2020
There’s always the one person who forgets to mute their microphone.
Text from a GM during this mock draft “there are early communication issues because 32 of us GMs are on conference call and we didn’t hit mute. Sounds awful”
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) April 20, 2020
It’s easy to make fun of the whole thing, but in truth, the endeavor is exponentially more complicated than the average fan’s fantasy football draft or even a sizable work-from-home conference call.
Asked a coach to describe this mock draft “You got the NFL main room-that only main people in the organization can log into, you got 15-20 scouts/ coaches on another meeting. You have to find a way to call prospects after you pick them, sign off on trades, lots of moving parts.”
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) April 20, 2020
Eventually, after the initial glitches, everyone reportedly found a groove and settled in.
Just checked back in on league’s mock draft “smooth sailing!”
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) April 20, 2020
The league will no doubt have some kinks to work out before Thursday’s opening round of picks. And while this year’s draft will look very different for fans tuning in to the festivities, there’s now a key part of it that should sound familiar.
The draft-day boobirds are back and will be heard loud and clear in 2020, even in Commissioner Goodell’s basement.
The NFL Draft will be without an important tradition. And we just can't let that stand. Record your boos then post & tag @budlight and #BooTheCommish. We’ll deliver the boos to the Draft, and for each #BootheCommish thru April 25, we’ll donate $1 to NFL Draft-a-Thon up to $500K. pic.twitter.com/fnvcYDpZPW
— Bud Light Seltzer (@budlight) April 20, 2020
Bud Light, one of the league’s biggest sponsors, and always quick with a tongue-in-cheek take on pretty much everything, is coming through with a virtual workaround to a time-honored draft day tradition… and managing to help out with the league’s charity efforts to boot.
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