Should Roger Goodell Cancel The Draft?
Yes he should.
This is not going to be gone in 2 weeks. I doubt the new normal will be over by the end of April. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s still actually worse than now by then. There is no reason to hold the draft as intended. There’s no reason to have a gathering of people. It’s not responsible, and it could lead to someone dying that didn’t have to die.
Do it digitally, like a fantasy draft between friends who live in separate cities. We don’t see GMs make the picks anyway, just the aftermath, there’s no reason we can’t have a small intimate broadcast with a bunch of graphics in place of other things. It could be unique, something to give us something to joke about. Maybe we see Mel Kiper on skype with his hair products on a shelf in the background. Maybe we get a zoom call with someone clearly sitting on the toilet. Media from this point in history is going to be so weird in the years to come when those who survive it remember the way it was. At least embrace it to some degree. Do not carry on as normal. The players in the draft will probably survive infection, but they might spread it to family, to friends, and beyond. The spectacle of the draft is not worth it.
I miss sports too. I miss the comfort of getting my adrenaline racing watching athletes do cool shit. I miss the general level of drama that not even free agency has been able to provide in this time when everything is off the air. I worry for everyone involved who needs those paychecks to keep going. I’m lucky enough at this point to still be employed by my work but I’m still struggling with it. I’ve been dealing with what I’m 95% sure is just seasonal allergies but the lack of confirmation has just made my anxiety worse. My grocery store has been a frightening free-for-all. I’m deeply concerned for the safety of numerous family members who I fear aren’t taking the thing as seriously as they should. It’s honestly been tough to work on anything, and if an update doesn’t come, that’s gonna be why. It might take some time to get used to this.
Sorry to be a downer. I know that’s not what you come here for.
Hope ya’ll are okay out there. Take care of yourselves.
I think a televised draft should still happen, but they can just have what’s being televised be nothing more than a series of separate live streams. Kinda like the XFL draft.
That’s exactly how it will be. The draft will be Goodell reading names from New York while Rixh Eisen and Daniel Jeremiah talk about it from their homes
Do not cancel the draft:
GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT!!
Internet draft then.
If I saw the announcement right, they’re basically doing the draft remotely now, with no prospects invited and only one team representative in the studio to turn in their card.
That’s my understanding, as well. I’m fine with this.
That’s how it should be.
I’d be ok with it being postponed. I don’t think now is the right time to try and push something just to push it (Looking at you Vince McMahon and Wrestlemania)
I’d like to see them do a remote draft. Maybe add time between picks so that team personnel can discuss the pick via Webex or Zoom, and then send the pick in. It would be a welcome distraction, and with modifications, a draft can be done in a safe manner.
My great uncle died at the end of February. Not from Covid-19 mind you, he died of complications from being old as dirt. Covid-19 has prevented us from holding the funeral, however. For a month. His mortal remains are chilling in a drawer at the funeral home. The funeral home has been super understanding about the situation and is not charging us for storage, but… I could see them having their own problems in the near future and be unable to accommodate us further.
I share this not seeking sympathy, but as just another random example of how everything is weird as shit when a pandemic shuts down society.
My mother has cancer.
I’m fully expecting her to be told that they won’t be treating it due to the nature of it and the fact that the virus will be peaking at about the time they need to treat it. I also expect her to be told I can’t come see her due to the risk I impose on her. I’m also expecting that if she does pass to this, I won’t be allowed to have a funeral for her because she lives in a state that’s not taken this seriously and now their peaking is going to clog it all up.
I think a lot of people are going to be in the same position I am. Not able to say goodbye, not able to have a funeral, just going to get a phone call.. and then a few days later, a box.
We’re going to need some strong mental health experts to help us, collectively, through what we’re about to all go through. This will be the hardest thing most of us will ever experience.
Wishing you the best man. Stay strong
I’m almost a week late here, but I hope this reaches you. Maybe Dave can pass it on if he has access to the emails we enter to comment.
If your mom’s situation plays out this way, see if the hospital has a hospice unit. My wife is a nurse and at this time hospice patients are the only people allowed to have visitors at her hospital. Your mom’s hospital could have a different policy of course, but it’s worth looking into.
I wish you nothing best. It sounds like you’ll be on top of it already, but take care of yourself as well.
Even if done remotely, teams are still going to want to gather in their “war rooms” to make the picks (or else try to replicate that setup exactly and make every IT person’s life a living hell for the next few weeks. And in case you don’t know, the money that flows freely on the football side of NFL jobs does NOT extend to support staff like that). And the scouts/coaches are doing this without all the in-person pro days and workouts and interviews that help them make their picks. Although I too would like something to watch, not pushing this back just further guarantees bad football this year, with a few teams separated at the top and a lot of dreck the rest of the way down. And that’s even before we get to watering it down with a 17th game and a completely idiotic 7th playoff team. Yay mediocrity!
You could hold a remote draft. Just Goodell in New York announcing whereas the analysts talk from home and the players find out from home, which is how a majority find out anyways.
Honestly it should be stripped down to whatever is necessary. Just phone everything in, and do it 100% remote.
He won’t get any hugs or handshakes, but that’s a small price to pay for keeping everyone safe from infection.
I know it’s not the same, but the LCS (league champions series) is the pro League of legends broadcast(it’s bigger than you think it is). They were in the middle of the season and they’ve figured out a way to continue their broadcast, and the games remotely. Now obviously you can’t play football remotely, but I think if LCS can manage to move the broadcast and games remotely, and still make a serviceable product to air, then football with their billions of dollars can manage to do the draft without endangering anyone’s lives.
PS: LCS just entered the playoffs. It’s not sports-sports, but I’ve enjoyed watching it since real sports were canceled (I hadn’t watched in years before March), maybe it’s an option for people hard up
You realize, of course, that money does good things, right? You could put a stop to traffic deaths overnight by outlawing cars. Why don’t we? Wouldn’t that be the responsible thing to do?
Ah, I see you know your strawmen too
Something tells me your opinion might be different if you ran a bar instead of a webcomic. Oh well. Enjoy your opinion.
bar owner =/= billionaire franchise owner. Also, this is a global pandemic, an unprecedented event in modern history, and it cannot be adequately compared to shit like Bar ownership and Car accidents.
Also, maybe it’s fucked up that a bar owner now has to decide whether or not to stay open and make enough money to stay afloat and support himself/employees while risking the health of everyone involved or stay closed, save lives, and possibly lose everything in the process. Maybe we shouldn’t be so eager to defend a system that causes the economy to be at odds with human lives. Maybe that system needs some major tweaks. The NFL owners will be fine in this crisis. Joe Bar Owner will not be. Stop defending billionaires.
Oh boy… “we shouldn’t be so eager to defend a system that causes the economy to be at odds with human lives” and “stop defending billionaires” in the same paragraph. I MUST be arguing on the internet. Enjoy your opinions.
Why? Is there something contradictory there? I’m not advocating for the murder of the billionaires. I’m wondering why people are so eager to go out of their way to defend people who are worth more money than any of us will see, who made it by perpetuating a system that crushes those of us closer to the bottom, a system that right now is causing poverty and death and will only get worse thanks to this crisis while they will be perfectly fine. Keep licking their boots, this crisis has shown how much they actually give a shit about helping those of us who are struggling. They have enough between themselves to keep everything working just fine without losing most of their worth, but they hide away and demand we go back to work in pandemic conditions
Why are people so eager to defend billionaires
I think people defend billionaires because the standard american dream sold to the billionaire defenders is that they’re just “temporarily non-billionaires” or “temporarily middle class.” Like we can just be billionaires if we try really hard.
It ignores the fact that every billionaire in this country, ever, had a significant part of it handed to him at some phase. Jeff Bezos got $300k from his mother. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were given property and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Bill Gates was the son of two high powered lawyers who invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in his startup. Sam Walton got from his mother in law’s family what we would now with inflation call a $378,000 gift to purchase the lease for his first store from a close family friend who owned the property.
So people think these billionaires are common, when in reality, they’re just coming from the really rich.
I’m sure just doing a webcomic is all Dave has time for. Writing and drawing to entertain people like you. I own a business too. I’m being heavily impacted. I’m worried. I’m not pointing fingers at anyone saying their opinion is trash. Why? Because how many people have routinely dealt with situations like this? Anybody? Ok, sit down and watch the almost cancelled draft then.
TBF Dave, an in-person draft is a strawman too. No one was seriously considering a draft with all nfl personnel there, much less with an audience like other years
Ill add in 1 more thing. Goodell could get arrested like that pastor in my home city of Tampa.
That would NEVER happen simply because we would all enjoy it too much
Heh… deleting comments? Clever 🙂
Don’t be a…….dipstik
Nice try Dipstik.
Realistically, why hold a draft?
We’ve got probably 12 to 18 months ahead of us where we’re going to be very travel restricted and limited in crowd sizes to no more than ten. We’re not going back to normal any time soon, and when the cold weather hits older people’s immune system again, this will spike anew and we’ll be right back in isolation for 6-8 weeks at a time.
Realistically we’re not doing sports as we know them for at least a year. Maybe two. So why would we really need a draft?
Can’t wait to see the bungles screw up and choose Tua or Chase.
Mel Skyper.
THAT gave me a laugh….
On a similar note, look at what NASCAR, IndyCar and others are doing with the iRacing platform right now. They’ve hastily pulled together a couple sim-racing leagues of current (and some former) stars, and with the TV vacuum, Fox/FS1 have been televising the races live. It’s hardly pulling the ratings of a normal event, but it’s something.
You’d think the NFL would be all over that. Have a few guys get together via Madden. I guess it’s easier for iRacing to treat it as a commercial, and you’d have so many vendor partners with Madden…but wouldn’t it be cool to see a couple pro players going head-to-head in a video game? Get Romo to provide analysis. I guess it’s also outside of their usual contracted time, but there must be a few egos that would appreciate the off-season publicity.
And for those who are doubtful that people would watch, I invoke the name of demetryjames86 and one GREG JENNINGS.
This is an outstanding idea. And probably exactly why the NFL won’t do it. For being the best sport to watch, it’s amazing how it can be absolutely the worst run one. Going with the Packers model and letting all the owners run it themselves couldn’t have turned out any worse than having Rog run it.
gronk could come out of retirement!
Just give all players, prospects, and personel the Corona virus. BOOM, No need to cancel the draft or season in fear of getting it since everyone has it. Win-Win.