As the first round of a historic NFL draft unspooled Thursday, top members of the Vikings’ IT team grew as nervous as general manager Rick Spielman. That’s not an exaggeration. They understood that years of planning and a month of emergency reconfigurations had come down to three days that promised a binary outcome of technological triumph or disaster. And they knew that they needed to connect upwards of 30 employees via videoconference in order to make a record number of selections remotely. And they understood that their future hinged on eliminating hiccups.
They also realized the duality present in Spielman’s technological proficiency.