By: Charlie Fragassi

This year, the 2021 NFL draft took place in Cleveland, Ohio.

The NFL draft was held with spectators allowed for the first time since last year, when there were no fans allowed because it was pretty much the start of COVID-19. It was held via Zoom, and the players had cameras on and were attending it virtually that way.

Fortunately, things have gotten better so the NFL decided to hold the draft allowing fans. The NFL still was fairly cautious about COVID, so obviously people were wearing masks, but what I thought was cool, was that in the pavilion where the draft was held, they had something called an inner circle. In the inner circle, the only people allowed were people who were fully vaccinated because those people were the closest to the stage and the players when they came out.

As I stated earlier, in last year’s draft, the draft participants were all in a Zoom call at home. This year, the players had the option to fly out to Cleveland and attend the draft in person. This is cool because the players get to go out on stage in front of everyone and meet the commissioner of the league, Roger Goodell, along with receiving their jersey right on stage in real time.

A lot of players opted to go in person to the draft, but a large chunk of them wanted to stay home and celebrate this special moment with their family and friends in the comfort of their own home, which, in my opinion, would be the most ideal thing to do.

Although it may have felt weird to have an in person NFL draft with fans, hopefully it continues this way in the future and we don’t have to worry about having an online draft ever again.