A World Without Sports
Gracie Hunt watches her father Clark Hunt, CEO of the Kansas City Chiefs, navigate the virtual NFL draft.
COVID-19 has halted the world in its tracks. It has shut down entire countries and sports along with them. Basketball and hockey face the reality of not having a champion this season. Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer may lose their entire seasons. NFL football faces the distinct reality of a postponed season — or a season played in empty stadiums.
Sports have long served as a unifying mechanism. Breaking social barriers and helping to teach the valuable principles of team building and self-sacrifice to achieve a common goal, sports mean a lot to the world. Sports mean a lot to the United States. They serve as a primary pastime and bring people together to celebrate athletic achievement, shared fandom, and team passion.
While the entire world battles COVID-19, the sports industry scrambles to readjust and find a way to play in a time of social distancing. Grappling with questions that include: what does an online draft look like? That is one of the issues that Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt has been working on with the other 31 NFL team owners.
“With the thirty-second pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Kansas City Chiefs select Clyde Edwards-Helaire,” Rodger Goodell announced on the broadcast. Meanwhile, I sat quietly in the background of a Zoom where Edwards-Helaire was welcomed to the team by my father, Clark Hunt.
With my dad working in a virtual draft war room, I had a front row seat to the intricacies and ongoings of the drafting process. Two televisions, two computers, a large iPad, and two cell phones served as the framework that the 2020 NFL Draft was conducted through. The spiderweb of cords on the floor made watching one’s step imperative so as not to disconnect the draft board or unplug the live Zoom feed between my dad, General Manager Brett Veach and his staff, and Head Coach Andy Reid. The anticipation of the process and phone calls to newly drafted players filled the walls of the Hunt home for three days.
With team facilities closed per league-wide mandate in early April, NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell confirmed that the draft would be “fully virtual.” The 2020 NFL draft was set to occur in Las Vegas, Nevada with the first round starting on Thursday, April 24th. The Las Vegas Raiders are set to begin their inaugural season in Los Vegas in a brand-new stadium this fall. The excitement around the city gaining a new NFL team would have begun at the draft and all of the events and celebrations surrounding it.
Now, potential players will remain in their homes, eagerly awaiting that coveted phone call. My dad spent the better part of the last month diligently setting up and testing the specialized television and computer systems that he needed in his virtual war room with the arrival of draft day. Access was essential to the draft board, Kansas City Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach and Head Coach Andy Reid, along with the scouting departments.
“It is hard to be a leader working from home. I have realized how important in-person meetings are with my management teams. While Zoom is a great platform for connecting with people, it just isn’t the same,” Hunt said. Winning Super Bowl LIV in combination with the victory parade in Kansas City were the greatest moments in Hunt’s professional career. The last couple of months would have included a very special time for Hunt as he would have attended the annual NFL Owner’s Meetings as the reigning Super Bowl champion — something he has not experienced in his thirteen years running the franchise.
Brett Veach, working tirelessly from his home basement, believes that one of the greatest challenges when it comes to working at home during draft time is the fact that he has young children. Like many working adults quarantined with their families, suddenly now the lines are blurred that once separated the work environment from the family environment.
The most difficult part of a virtual draft is “the communication between Andy Reid and Brett Veach and their staff in making trades,” Hunt said. “There are trade charts when you are bundling picks that value each deal, so not having that immediate, in-person communication complicated the process,” according to Hunt.
During the draft, each team gets a standard allotment of ten minutes on the clock. Meaning, when it is their turn, they have ten minutes to trade or finalize a decision and then make the call. They are planning to maintain the traditional timing; however, if a team suffered a communication glitch, “I’m sure the league would be accommodating,” Hunt said.
The sports world is facing much more than the logistics of virtual drafts and potential communication lags. It is facing the complete shutdown of athlete development. Teams cannot train. Games cannot be played. And practice facilities from the high school to the professional level have closed. Meanwhile, athletes like soccer and baseball players must do what they can to stay in shape to be ready for their season at a moment’s notice.
