2020 NFL draft will go ahead – much to the relief of millions of NFL fans around the world.
When the NBA season was called off, it wasn’t long before the sporting world collapsed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Before the real scale of the outbreak was known, the NFL world was grateful it happened to be their off-season.
However, as cases have increased globally and countries everywhere are going on lockdown, NFL fans were growing more and more anxious about the upcoming season.
Earlier this week, ESPN reported that President Donald Trump believed the NFL season should start on time in September.
Thankfully, one thing that has not been postponed is this year’s NFL draft is going to go ahead – albeit in virtual format.
Commissioner Roger Goodell has informed all clubs that it will proceed in a memo sent out on Monday, according to the NFL Network.
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The memo read: “Because of these circumstances, Clubs have been advised to prepare to conduct the 2020 Draft entirely outside of their facilities and in a fully virtual format, with club personnel in separate locations and able to communicate with one another and Draft headquarters by phone or internet.
“We have reviewed this matter in the past few days with both the Competition Committee and CEC, and this will confirm that Clubs will conduct their Draft operations remotely, with club personnel separately located in their homes.”
The network reports that league and club facilities will remain closed indefinitely so as to comply with the current COVID-19 regulations.
Team personnel were also advised that they should be in separate locations and use phone and internet to communicate.
The 2020 NFL draft was originally set to take place in Las Vegas and will run on the same dates – April 23 to 25.
This is just the latest adjustment the NFL is having to make after the league informed teams in March they must not conduct pre-draft visits.