The 2020 NFL Draft is going to be here in just over a week, and at this point I don’t think any of us care about what it’s going to look like. Just the fact that it will be here and it will be an actual football event that somewhat resembles actual normalcy will be a great solace to all football fans.
The draft is actually one of the biggest events on the entire football calendar, even considering the actual games played, that’s how much people care about it. After all, there are a ton of college football fans, too, and this is the time they make the transition from amateur to professional.
Still, this will be a draft unlike any before due to the circumstances. There will be no big public spectacle. In fact, people will literally be calling in the picks from their own homes, like a professional fantasy football draft.
The term basement commissioner will become literal, as well, as commissioner Roger Goodell will reportedly be announcing the draft picks as they occur this year from the basement of his own home. The only thing that remains up in the air is as to whether or not his family will have the good grace to boo him, as is tradition.
While many players end up growing to hate him, seeing Goodell up on the stage greeting you into the NFL is still a big thing for most draft prospects, and that greeting itself has become a spectacle with the way in which all the different players embrace him.
This time around, they will have to settle for some sort of FaceTime greeting. And frankly, who knows when any of them will come face to face? Not even team personnel are permitted to gather together, per the league’s orders.
Prior to that missive coming out, the Pittsburgh Steelers were preliminarily planning to have a skeleton crew in their war room consisting of head coach Mike Tomlin, general manager Kevin Colbert, and president Art Rooney II.
Instead, Colbert will be responsible for making the selections, and will have to be in communication with the rest of his crew, including his assistant coaches and the wide branches of his scouting department, through alternative means.
That’s a pretty crucial step, and this next week is critical for teams as they troubleshoot all of this technology to make sure that it works properly, and goes off without a hitch while the draft is happening. You don’t want to screw up a draft pick because you can’t get a hold of the scout you wrote up the most substantial report on a prospect.
