It was doing so well, really.
The NFL, blessed with the great fortune of being the only professional sports league not to have its season or postseason interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, has largely seen its calendar go unchanged during all this.
Free agency went off on schedule and outside of physicals needing to be dealt with, everything went fine and it was a great distraction for the football-loving part of the country (in case you didn't know, 43 percent of Americans don't give a flying football about the NFL).
Some people were against it, thought it was a bad look to be giving out millions of dollars when many Americans were being laid off and didn't know where their next check was going to come from. But since everything thing could be done virtually, some of us didn't seem the harm and it was, indeed, a great distraction. Plus, delaying a week, a month or three months wasn't guaranteed to be any better. In fact, it was likely going to be a lot worse and if that happened, you'd put the ability to start the season at risk.
Most of us really don't have much of a problem with the draft as well and for many of the same reasons. It didn't involve asking anyone to get on a plane. Teams could conduct the draft with a small crew in their town. We could all sit on our couches and be entertained for hours over three days. No one was going to be hurt or infected. Good, clean entertainment, and the NFL — and quite a few other people — could make a buck at the same time. All good from this vantage point, although some important voices didn't agree.
Even @AdamSchefter is fed up. pic.twitter.com/2c8VXpeIC0
— Matt Rogers ? (@Politidope) April 1, 2020
"We think Italy may be the most comparable area to the United States at this point," Vice President Mike Pence says. "Our message yesterday, our message over the next 30 days, is the future is in our hands" https://t.co/COuRbBQyOK pic.twitter.com/ncxpm7NDbc
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 1, 2020
In loving memory of my mom and dad- please make the tough and right choice and help stop the spreading of this virus. pic.twitter.com/FqVEWjdscq
— Buddy Baker (@ESG_Baker) March 31, 2020