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+---- Thread: *How the NSFL should handle the draft despitecovid (/showthread.php?tid=20636)
*How the NSFL should handle the draft despitecovid - cho1325 - 03-30-2020
With the upcoming draft coming to the NSFL in a couple of weeks I think the league could use some tactics the NFL will be using with the upcoming draft. The coronavirus pandemic has upended all sports except the NFL as they have yet to postpone or cancel any games as of so far. With little else going on in sports, the league has doubled down on holding its annual 3 day draft which ranks behind only the Super Bowl as the NFL’s biggest spectacle beginning on April, altering the broadcast, which will now be a TV only studio production with top picks participating remotely.
The annual NFL Draft gives the teams the opportunity to infuse their rosters with new talent. Some players will provide an instant boost to the team that selects them; others won’t. But the chance that drafted players will lead their new clubs to glory makes teams compete over talent, whether in the first round or the last.
Social distancing restrictions intended to contain the pandemic have forced team scouts and general managers to work from home. Team doctors cannot conduct physicals for prospective draft picks. And above all, team executives must forgo vital face to face conversations with prospects that are typically held on college campuses or at a team’s headquarters.
Teams are doing without those visits this year, instead relying on phone interviews with players, and their coaches, families and friends, and watching yet more game tape, trying to find new ways to assess hard to qualify personality traits, such as players’ level of narcissism, openness to criticism and new ideas, and interaction with team personnel. Sometimes, you want to see someone in an uncomfortable situation and see how they react, and in person, it’s always easier to do that.
Complicating matters, the NFL Physicians Society said in a letter to the league and players union that team doctors would no longer examine players, forcing teams to find other doctors to provide physicals. The difficulty in finding doctors and the inability to hold workouts has forced teams to sign players contingent on their passing a physical. Teams have been unable to fully assess free agents as well as college players like Tua Tagovailoa, the Alabama quarterback who had a season ending hip fracture in November.
Despite these limitations, the NFL is forging ahead. In a memo sent to teams on Thursday, Goodell said rescheduling the draft would be difficult because it was unclear when a better date would emerge. The “public health conditions are highly uncertain and there is no assurance that we can select a different date and be confident that conditions will be significantly more favorable than they are today.”
You can tell the NSFL too had implemented some steps to social distancing as I will add my own personal experience so far. The majority of my interviews with scouts have been done using either a phone conversation or the computer be it email or other messaging entities. Although this is just for scouting purposes I would hope the NSFL takes some steps during this pandemic to help curb the line. Stay safe all and wash your hands.
James Cho DE #92