For decades the NFL Draft made its home at Radio City Music Hall in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, before the NFL opted to go mobile and move about the country in 2015.
Since then, the draft has been held in a different city each year, and this year it will be Pittsburgh that sees a massive influx of fans and media for the draft. After having witnessed other cities deal with issues related to crowding, including, “traffic, parking and road closure” headaches, the Pittsburgh Public school district
took the initiative and Friday announced that school’s out (well, remote) for summer the draft.
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
“We don’t take the decision to go remote lightly,” PPS spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said.
The district made the call in order to “reduce transportation challenges, minimize disruptions to school operations, and ensure students can continue learning safely and effectively,” according to a release this week announcing the decision.
The city’s schools will transition to asynchronous teaching and learning from April 22-24 while the NFL Draft runs from April 23-25 at Point State Park and on the North Shore.
For those who have never been to Pittsburgh, this may sound crazy, but the reality is that due to the space constraints downtown where the draft will be held, combined with the massive influx of people that the draft brings, getting out of the city late in the day will be an absolute nightmare.
For those curious whether or not Field Gulls will be in attendance at the draft this year, some basic research finds that highly unlikely given how much demand there is for hotels in the area during the three day event.
So, while Field Gulls will provide fans with all the news and updates, those updates will once again come from a team operating remote, rather than on site.
Author’s Note: The Seattle Seahawks are still reigning Super Bowl champions. Normally I point that out in the introductory paragraph of each post, but did not do so here and just don’t want any readers to lose sleep worrying about whether or not the Seahawks did indeed steamroll the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX back in February.
