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This time next week the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft will be in the books. Well, it should be in the books barring any technical issues that could pop up and make this year’s event even more unique.
This year’s draft is going to be a very weird one, with all the teams handling their picks while basically working from home like the rest of us and with Roger Goodell announcing the picks from his basement.
If you’ve done any Zoom work calls over the past month or so you know things can sometimes get a little wonky and awkward with those. Now we have 32 NFL coaches and GMs trying to figure this thing out and it could end up like a FaceTime with my parents when I have to yell at my dad to pull the phone away from his ear.
I mean, this thing could get truly bizarre.
But it can’t get here soon enough, because it’s been a while since we’ve had a real sports thing happening (and no, we’re not counting that awful H.O.R.S.E thing a real sports thing). I’m in the business of writing about live sporting events and let me tell you something – I can’t wait to have something live to watch again because my goodness is sports content getting more difficult to produce as these sports-less days drag on.
Like you, I’ve filled out the past month or so by watching old sporting events (all those Masters final rounds last year were perfect). I’ve also become addicted to F1 thanks to the awesome documentary on Netflix, and I’m about to finish up “Sunderland ‘Til I Die” which is also awesome and on Netflix.
Those have all done an adequate job of helping with my sports fix since things basically came to a standstill that night in March when Rudy Gobart tested positive for the coronavirus in Oklahoma City and the NBA shut things down. That set the stage for basically all the other sports in the world to close up shop as we all do the right thing of staying home and fighting off this deadly and depressing global pandemic.
Every day we’re searching for some normality in our lives, especially as we put on our masks and head into a grocery store. I have many WTF moments in my day where I can’t believe what we’re going through and how all of our lives have been changed so much in such a little time.
Which brings me back to the 2020 NFL Draft. Just seeing my coworker Steven Ruiz breaking down the QBs in this year’s draft got me fired up for some good NFL content that is all about football. Remember football? By the way, you should be following Steven on Twitter because he’s incredible at teaching you about the game from many different interesting angles. His content is always great, but his draft content is superb.
So here we are, less than a week away from real (and safe) sports stuff happening and I have to believe the ratings for this thing are going to be through the roof, probably for all three days because we are starving for some sports and there’s nothing else on.
Next week we get to sit on our couches and tweet together about shocking picks made by stupid teams, or embarrassing mistakes made by bad teams trying to figure out technology. We get to laugh together as we all gather to watch something that is new and fresh and something that will be TOTALLY different from any other NFL draft that we’ve seen before.
For a few days that is going to feel pretty awesome.
Now it just has to hurry up and get here.
Thursday’s biggest winner: Tom Brady.
Thursday was the 20th anniversary of the day that the New England Patriots used the 199th pick of the 2000 NFL Draft on a scrawny Michigan QB who has since become the GOAT. He also recently became a Buccaneer, which is still weird to type. Brady celebrated the anniversary in typical Brady fashion, too, as he remains motived by that draft all these years later.
Quick hits: Dodgers pitches smashes a window… Jay Glazer gets ripped… Bubba Wallace speaks out about Kyle Larson… And more!
– Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly was working on his changeup in his back yard when he… broke a window.
– Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer got crushed for the way he handled his breaking news about Brian Allen having the coronavirus.
– NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace condemned Kyle Larson for using a racist slur.
– A “Price is Right” contestant won the saddest sports prize.
– A college Jeopardy! contestant mixed up Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth in an easy baseball question. I mean, come on.