This column claims no insider knowledge of the maintenance schedule for the NFL offices at 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan, except for the fact that if it were so inclined, the NFL could turn the simple act of vacuuming the place into a three-day event over which the TV networks would compete viciously to carry live in prime time.
The NFL draft is the crown jewel of sports marketing, an event that requires one hotel conference room and a couple of dozen cell phones but somehow commands months of breathless, highly speculative media coverage culminating in a roaming festival that draws tens of thousands to the host city and millions of viewers to the league’s various media platforms.
The draft was last month, but an even more convincing display of the league’s marketing genius came last week, with the release of the league’s schedule for the season that begins in only another 16 weeks.
