It’s not quite carnage in the streets, but there’s a concern regarding the presence of IT workers in NFL homes.
That’s the latest from Adam Schefter of ESPN. He reports that a “concern has emerged in recent days” regarding “certain coaches and front-office staffers [being] reluctant to have their IT employees in their homes for fear of the virus spreading.” The reverse also applies; Schefter says that some IT employees are concerned about going into homes to equip them for the draft.
It’s a legitimate concern, and frankly it’s an issue that potentially violates “stay at home” orders and other applicable local restrictions. If a given state or county has no exception allowing NFL employees to go to team facilities for the purposes of working the draft, there’s also likely no exception allowing IT employees to leave their own homes and enter the homes of others.
If this concern has legs (and it quite possibly does), it’s another consequences of the league’s ready-fire-aim approach to conducting the draft. While there are real benefits for the millions who are stuck at home having something to anticipate for the next two weeks followed by something to spend three days distracted by, there are real challenges to compliance with the rules that are in place in many of the area where the NFL does business.
How this one gets resolved remains to be seen. But even if the IT employees ultimately don’t enter homes, the NFL will find a way to get draft done, even if it comes down to 32 tin cans with string leading to 345 Park Avenue.
