During these most abnormal of times, there were small comforts to be found in the relative normalcy of the television coverage of the first round of the NFL Draft Thursday night.
No, of course the draft, which runs through Saturday with collaboration between ESPN and the NFL Network as well as a separate network broadcast on ABC, didn’t resemble the massive public event that it has become in recent years.
This year, it was booked to take place in Las Vegas, with 750,000 fans projected to be in attendance over its three days. Instead, as everyone with a hint of common sense socially distances in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first round came to us from more personal venues this year: the basements and living rooms of 60 top prospects and the 32 general managers and owners charged with selecting them virtually.