DAILY NEWSNYDailyNews.com Sunday, March 29, 2020 73
had, with red carpets to follow.
Those fans would follow the
draft when the NFL turned it
into a road show. In 2014, Radio
City, owned by Madison Square
Garden, had scheduled a spring
spectacular for the usual draft
dates in late April. The league
had to move the draft back into
May, only to see the Radio City
show switched to 2015.
Annoyed by the Garden’s
machinations, and intrigued by
the pos s i bi li t ies of movin g
around its biggest offseason
event, the NFL abandoned the
Big Apple for the Windy City.
After two highly successful years
in Chicago in which the league
used iconic local settings and fan
festivals to boost the draft’s pro-
file and the size of the crowds, it
headed to Philadelphia — the
original site back in Bert Bell’s
days.
There, using the Philadelphia
Mu s e u m o f A r t , w i t h t h e“Rocky” statue and all, as a back-
drop, the NFL saw an astound-
ing 250,000 attend over three
days.
“Philadelphia is raising the
ba r,” C o m m i s s i o n e r Ro g e r
Goodell said.
In 2018, a stadium was the site
for the first time, at AT&T Sta-
dium, Jerry’s Palace near Dallas.
And then the draft headed to
Music City, alongside the honky
tonks on Broadway in Nashville
—and was, by far, the biggest
smash hit in its history.
Las Vegas won’t have its
chance this spring, and 2021 is
reserved for Cleveland. The
Vegas Strip might get a shot
again in 2022, which is unspo-
ken for.
Regardless, and even in these
stressful times when it wisely
has been scaled back as a safe-
guard, the NFL draft is a major
event.
What would Bert Bell think?ONE LIGHT DRAFT
In a general overall view of AT&T Stadium in 2018, Georgia’s Roquan Smith is selected by the Chicago Bears during the first round of the NFL draft in Arlington, Texas. APIn this Feb. 13, 1957, photo NFL Commissioner Bert Bell gestures in his office in Philadelphia. His creation,
the NFL draft, has become an industry unto itself. AP