The NFL draft was formerly an event that fans tracked after the fact, either from post-draft TV recaps, sports radio, or - god forbid! - a newspaper the next day. It simply wasn’t a compelling spectator event – aside from the annual booing from NY Jets fans at Radio City Music Hall (comforting in its dependability, like a herald of Spring) there wasn’t much drama beyond the picks themselves.
However in the last decade ESPN & the NFL have invested massive amounts of effort and resources to create a multi-day live TV & multimedia extravaganza, going so far this year as to host the event at AT&T Stadium in Dallas AKA Jerry World, in front of a live audience numbering over 100,000.