“With the first pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Cincinnati Bengals select…”
When Commissioner Roger Goodell utters that phrase on the night of April 23 to kick off the opening round of the National Football League’s biggest off-season event, it will be historic.
That’s because in a memo sent to all 32 NFL teams, Goodell outlined how the April 23-25 draft is going to operate while team employees and league officials practice physical distancing.
For the first time in league history, the NFL Draft will be held in an entirely virtual format because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The draft was supposed to be held in Las Vegas, but the NFL has cancelled all public events to help combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, and with all team facilities closed as of March 26, teams will be making each of their selections remotely.
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It’ll be no different than drafting your fantasy team on your phone, save for the multi-million dollar contracts that go along with actually drafting a player.
Now, you just know that at some point during the seven rounds of the draft there’s going to be at least one team that is going to experience some kind of technical snafu, and no one will be surprised to find out that New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick will be behind it.
It will come to be known as DraftGate, or CoronavirusGate, or something else with ‘Gate’ attached to it — see SpyeGate and DeflateGate.
One thing is for certain, there’s no doubt in my mind that because we are starved for anything sports-related, the NFL Draft (likely to be a joint broadcast between ESPN and NFL Network) will be the most-watched sporting event since last year’s Super Bowl.
By the way, unless something really goes sideways, Goodell will finish his sentence by saying, “Joe Burrow, quarterback, LSU.”
All I know is April 23 can’t come soon enough.
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