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The 2020 NFL Draft is just over one week away. It will mark a unique viewing experience for football fans across the country with this year’s draft being held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.
There will be some sense of normalcy, however, with ESPN and the NFL Network announcing reporters will not be able to leak draft picks before they are officially announced.
NFL senior vice president of programming and production Mark Quenzel announced on a conference call that both networks — which are working together for this year’s broadcast — are banning reporters from prematurely announcing the picks, according to Pro Football Talk.
Of course, there are some reporters on social media that work for different outlets who may be willing to leak the picks, so log in to Twitter at your own risk during the draft.
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It is just the latest change in the NFL Draft since the league decided to take its show on the road. Las Vegas had edged out bids from cities like Denver, Kansas City, Nashville, and Cleveland/Canton to host this year’s draft from April 23 to April 25 before the last-minute changes.
In recent years, the NFL has strayed from tradition and moved the draft out of New York City, where it had been held for years.
In 2015, the NFL Draft moved to Chicago, Illinois which marked the first time since 1965 that the draft was held outside of New York City. It was held at Auditorium Theatre in Grant Part which marked the first draft to feature an outdoor component. The draft returned to Chicago in 2016 after the great reception a year prior. In 2017, the draft shifted to Philadelphia where it was held on the iconic Rocky Steps outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was the most attended draft in NFL history with more than 250,000 fans.
Then, in 2018, the draft was held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and it marked more NFL first’s. It was the first time in history that the draft was held in the state of Texas, while also being the first draft to take place in an NFL stadium. The 2019 NFL Draft was held in Nashville, Tennessee.
