PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — You know that feeling when you're dealing with technical difficulties, and you're so frustrated that you want to chuck your computer across the room ... until you realize the issue was minimal, at best?
Well, from what it sounds like, the NFL had some technical issues like this on Monday night during a dry run of the virtual 2020 draft.
I’m texting with multiple coaches and GM’s who are on this mock draft call and everybody is saying the same thing which is band width is a problem. There are many communication issues.
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN)
April 20, 2020 Text from a GM during this mock draft “there are early communication issues because 32 of us GMs are on conference call and we didn’t hit mute. Sounds awful”
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN)
April 20, 2020 Text from a participant on the NFL’s mock draft that started at 1 pm EST. “Mock draft today already technical glitch w Cincinnatis 1st pick!!! Brutal.”
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter)
April 20, 2020 More on today’s mock draft technical glitch: The Bengals didn’t do anything wrong; wasn’t their fault. But the glitch resulted in a two-and-a-half minute delay, per source. https://t.co/q70MLZ14D4
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter)
April 20, 2020 The league conducted the practice Draft to test technology and communications for the real one, which starts on Thursday.
Too much background noise, talking over one another and timing were among the issues cited by anonymous
Associated Press sources. And despite those problems, the dry run went fine, they said.
"After the start, its running smoothly. Its quiet actually on the call"Text from another Head Coach on mock draft.
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN)
April 20, 2020 Just checked back in on league’s mock draft “smooth sailing!”
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN)
April 20, 2020 San Francisco 49ers General Manager John Lynch and Denver Broncos General Manager John Elway both publicly said they're satisfied everything will be fine on Thursday.
“I think we used it as another opportunity to focus on internally,” Lynch said, according to the AP. “I think the chatter out and about that I understand is going on, that it really wasn’t in a good situation, I didn’t really see that. I think early there were a couple of hitches. That’s why we do practice trial runs.”
My at-home war room is almost like I’m at the @SAPSports Performance Facility. Thanks to our IT and video teams + our scouts and coaches we’re ready for the #NFLDraft this week. #IGYB pic.twitter.com/ytuZKY9Bk4
— John Lynch (@JohnLynch49ers)
April 20, 2020 “It got off to a little bit of a hiccup when we first started, but other than that, I thought it went really smooth,” Elway said, also according to the AP. "There were no problems with it, so we got more comfortable with it. So, it should be fine and go on without a glitch — I’m sure there will be a couple of glitches here and there — but actually for the first time I thought it went pretty well.”
Last week, Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman said there are no excuses for their remote setup. Roseman and his staff believe they are ready to operate remotely for these very important three days.
According to Peter King’s Football Morning In America column, Roseman gathered his fellow general managers and some head coaches to collectively donate $1,000 per pick to the Draft-A-Thon, which is raising money for national nonprofits working on COVID-19 relief. That would equate to at least $256,000 because there are 255 picks and one Supplemental Pick.
And Draft sponsor Bud Light is setting up another way to donate to the Draft-A-Thon, which as of Tuesday morning had raised over $267,000.
It’s tradition for fans in the live Draft audience to boo NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell every year. Of course, Goodell is going to be announcing the picks from his basement this week, not from a huge stage. So this year, fans can record their boos and tweet them to Bud Light using #BooTheCommish.
Bud Light says they’ll deliver the boos to the Draft, and the company will donate $1 to the Draft-A-Thon for every hashtag, up to $500,000.
The NFL Draft will be without an important tradition. And we just can't let that stand. Record your boos then post & tag @budlight and #BooTheCommish. We’ll deliver the boos to the Draft, and for each #BootheCommish thru April 25, we’ll donate $1 to NFL Draft-a-Thon up to $500K. pic.twitter.com/fnvcYDpZPW
— Bud Light Seltzer (@budlight)
April 20, 2020 ___
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
