Will coronavirus change the NFL Draft?

The NFL is going to have to deal with the coronavirus at some point, with what to do with its next biggest event in April looming large. 

The current coronavirus pandemic is affecting nearly all professional and college sports programs in America and internationally. The NBA and MLS have both suspended play indefinitely as well as the MLB and NHL seasons. Conference tournaments for college basketball have also been canceled with the NCAA tournament likely soon to cancel as well.

The NFL is the one major sport not in season or beginning soon. But the league is not immune to the effects of the virus. Teams such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Washington Redskins have told their coaches and scouts to stop traveling.

With the Combine over, the next major NFL event is the Draft coming up starting April 23rd. How will the coronavirus affect the draft?

The draft is over a month away still so there’s no reason to jump to any conclusions, but with large gatherings being banned in many places in America, the draft may look different.

Usually, the draft is a huge event with fans from all over the country coming together to support (or get angry at) their team’s draft choices. It has become a huge entertainment and vanity show for the league, the players, and the fans.

Even though the NBA and MLS have suspended play, the MLB is currently planning on having games go as normal, with their season starting later this month. If the ban on large gatherings holds up that long, it will likely cause the MLB to reevaluate that decision. If the ban continues into April, it is probable that the draft will also be done without fans present.

There’s no reason the draft can’t be done remotely and still be televised though. It definitely would not be the spectacle it currently is, but they could still have NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell read off each team’s choice as they send them in from an off-site war room.

Players would not need to be on-site either, for extra safety.

There could still be commentators discussing players with game highlights and combine footage as normal, they just may need to be in a studio in a different location than the commissioner and other media.

Keeping groups separate in that way would ensure safety for nearly everyone involved and with the chance of someone being unknowingly contagious, it keeps the virus contained to a much smaller group than the normal draft would.

There’s mild precedent for this situation, which happened back in 2008 around the 65th Golden Globe awards. Due to the writers strike and the threat of picketing and boycotting by the writers and celebrities alike, the award ceremony was canceled and the winners were announced in a different location in a 32-minute long press conference.

It’s not the worst idea to consider — although nowhere near certain — the NFL follows a similar format for this year’s draft.

For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.