Goodell to Seahawks, teams: toned-down NFL draft a go amid coronavirus, shut up about it
The Seahawks and every other NFL team got their directive from the commissioner about the draft.
It is going on as scheduled next month despite the coronavirus pandemic. If you don’t like that, tough. Keep your mouth shut about it.
Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memorandum to all 32 teams Thursday evening telling them the league’s draft is a go for April 23-25. While doing so, Goodell acknowledged no one knows where the country and society will be then with COVID-19 and the lockdown much of the nation from Seattle to New York is experiencing to contain it.
Goodell said he met with the league’s management council executive committee and it was “unanimous and unequivocal that the Draft should go forward as scheduled.” The commissioner said he has discussed the issue with “many other owners, club executives and coaches,” and that there is “widespread support” for the decision to hold the draft in less than a month.
The NFL is pretty much the only major sports league in the world operating its business as usual during the pandemic that as of Thursday night had reached almost 533,000 cases worldwide.
On Thursday the United States surpassed China, the country of origin for the disease late last year, and Italy in total cases; our country’s total was almost 86,000 as of Thursday night. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 was approaching 1,300. There had been a national-most 365 deaths in New York City, where Goodell and the NFL have their headquarters.
“Everyone recognizes that public health conditions are highly uncertain and there is no assurance that we can select a different date and be confident that conditions will be significantly more favorable than they are today,” Goodell wrote in his memo to teams, as disclosed in full by Tom Pelissero of the league-owned NFL Network. “I also believe that the Draft can serve a very positive purpose for our clubs, our fans, and the country at large, and many of you have agreed.”
Unlike the canceled NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball and world soccer leagues, the NFL is not playing games this time of year; those don’t start for real until September. The league has continued business as usual this month. Veteran players have again gotten megamillions after the on-time opening of the free-agent market and the league year. NFL news has been the only fresh ones in the sports world the last two weeks.
Now the NFL draft will go on, too. But in a different way.
The merits of holding a nationally televised draft in the middle of a pandemic are debatable. But this is the one sporting event in the world that could be done appropriately and effectively amid our current conditions.
The league has scrapped its plan to hold the event as a fan-filled extravaganza in Las Vegas for the first time. There will be no drafted players getting to the stage in the middle of the water and fountains in front of the Bellagio on The Strip via boat, as had been the plan.
The league is also canceling the custom of the NFL inviting college players, particularly first-round picks, to attend the draft at all. This year, there will be no draftees waiting in a “green room” for Goodell to call their names. No obligatory photo op on stage with the commissioner for the top pick while wearing a fresh, new cap of the team that just selected him.
“Already, we have canceled all public events, we will not be bringing prospects and their families to the Draft,” Goodell wrote, “and the Draft itself will be conducted and televised in a way that reflects current conditions.”
The NFL has canceled all pre-draft travel. No team scouts, coaches or other personnel to college campuses, pro-day workouts or any other place to see prospects. No visits by prospects to team headquarters for pre-draft interviews; each team normally gets 30 of those. The work teams did during the last couple college football seasons and at the scouting combine last month at Indianapolis must suffice as the first-hand preparation for this draft.
Team facilities remain closed until at least April 8, at which time the league will reassess that. There is a chance general manager John Schneider, coach Pete Carroll, the team’s assistant coaches and the scouting staff will be working on draft days from their couches instead of Seahawks headquarters in Renton.
It’s going to be emails, texts and phones to draft this year—though not quite the old, landlines-only way of conducting it from before this event was even televised, let alone a mammoth national event. Video conferencing is a likely alternative this time.
“All clubs should now be doing the necessary planning to conduct Draft operations in a location outside of your facility, with a limited number of people present, and with sufficient technology resources to allow you to communicate internally, with other clubs, and with Draft headquarters,” Goodell’s memo stated.
The commissioner ended his letter to teams with a preemptive warning: comply, and silently. Do not object, no matter what a team employee’s feelings may be about proceeding with the draft amid what’s going on in the real world.
“Public discussion of issues relating to the Draft serves no useful purpose,” Goodell wrote, “and is grounds for disciplinary action.”
That’s a rather draconian way to unify the entire league behind this toned-down draft, eh?
But before Goodell sent his memo to teams, Saints general manager Mickey Loomis told NBC Sports he was in favor of delaying the draft, “so that we could get some of the work done that our scouts and personnel people ordinarily do.” Loomis was in the Seahawks front office for 15 years, including as executive vice president from 1992-98.
Thursday night, at least one national report, from Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report, stated indeed not every NFL team favors the draft going on as scheduled.
The NBA has postponed its draft that it had scheduled for June 25. The NHL announced Wednesday it was postponing its draft indefinitely; it was supposed to be June 26-27 in Montreal. Major League Baseball may hold its usual June draft in July and may shorten it.
This story was originally published March 27, 2020 at 7:25 AM.
