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Closing Bell

Goodell: NFL Teams Must Draft From Home In Virtual Event

NFL teams will not be permitted to gather in team facilities or anywhere else to conduct the draft on April 23-25, Commissioner Roger Goodell decreed today in a memo calling for a “fully virtual” draft. Also, Goodell extended the mandatory closure of all league and team facilities due to the coronavirus threat “indefinitely.” It had been scheduled to expire Wednesday.

As recently as Thursday, NFL officials were still considering allowing teams back into team HQ or other locations to draft, as long as they adhered to local laws and CDC guidelines on social distancing. But, Goodell said, they determined that was not feasible, citing competitive fairness issues and differences between local jurisdictions. “After consulting with medical advisors, we cannot identify an alternative that is preferable from a medical or public health perspective, given the varying needs of clubs, the need properly to screen participants, and the unique risk factors that individual club employees may face,” Goodell wrote.

The ruling appears to ban ideas such as the Saints’ plans to establish their war room in the Dixie Beer Brewery, owned by Saints Owner Gayle Benson. The NFL’s events, football operations, IT and management council will be available to assist teams with planning and execution for the remote draft.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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