In these extremely abnormal times the nation is facing, the 2020 NFL draft was able to provide  fans with a sense of normalcy. Although it was not the same spectacle it has been in past years, the NFL still found a way to make it entertain and inform the viewers.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It’s Draft Day! ?: 2020 NFL Draft begins tonight at 8pm ET on NFLN/ESPN/ABC

A post shared by NFL Draft (@nfldraft) on Apr 23, 2020 at 6:02am PDT

Instead of being attended by nearly 800,000 sports fans in Las Vegas, the draft came to fans from the homes of hopeful prospects and NFL personnel in charge of Selecting players for their roster to help them reach the same goal, the Lombardi Trophy.  

For something that hasn’t been done before, the networks found a way to make the draft go by relatively seamlessly. Once Louisiana State University quarterback Joe Burrow was selected first overall, the draft really got underway, bouncing back and forth from analyst to analyst to Burrow and his family. ESPN personnel gave their thoughts about what each team needed as they were making their picks, which  filled up the time swiftly. 

This format of the draft gave fans a look into the lives of NFL personnel from a different perspective. “The NFL’s draft industrial complex took a hit this weekend, and I mean that in the most optimistic way possible. The 2020 NFL Virtual Draft revealed a level of humanity, intimacy and spartan aesthetics that was not only pitch-perfect amid a national quarantine, but also suggestive of a new way of drafting,”Kevin Seifert wrote in an Apr. 25 ESPN article.

“More than 55 million viewers tuned in to watch an NFL draft unlike any other in the past. Thursday’s first round alone drew 15.6 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, NFL Network, ESPN Deportes and digital channels, shattering the previous record of 12.4 million in 2014,”  Justin Birnbaum wrote in an Apr. 27 CNBC article.  Justin Birnbaum wrote in a CNBC article.The virtual draft  shows that society can still operate under the current circumstances and provide entertainment and joy.