The 2021 draft may be a test run for NFL consumer life in the post-COVID world.
National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell should begin the National Football League’s days long draft and infomercial by imitating Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck singing. Overture, curtain, lights. This is it, the night of nights. No more rehearsing and nursing a part. We know every part by heart. Goodell knows every part by heart, the booing, the calling out of every pick during the dazzling affair that celebrates nothing. A guy getting an audition to play in the NFL. But this year’s NFL Draft will be a little different. Last year’s NFL Draft was held during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and was strictly a closed affair resembling the drafts of the 1950s when things were done in back rooms with secrecy prevailing or there was a general lack of interest in the whole affair.
The NFL has its draft experience where fans who feel the need to experience what essentially is a boring exercise can attend some events. The NFL wants those people wearing masks even if those people have been vaccinated. Mask wearing or not wearing a mask has for some inexplicable reason become a political not a health issue during the pandemic. There will be a vaccinated fan zone but being vaccinated is not a requirement to attend the NFL event. Covid-19 vaccinated people will get to go to the “draft stage” to take in the entire atmosphere of the manufactured event. There will also be social distancing. It seems for the NFL and for each of the 32 franchises this is a test to see if league health protocols work and if the strategies can be used for people who want to attend training camps to watch practices. It is too far too early to know if NFL teams can fully fill a stadium in the fall.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
