The news now is official: After being held at the same location for half a century, the NFL Draft will have a different home for the third time in four years.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced Thursday that Philadelphia will host the 2017 NFL Draft from April 27-29. Chicago’s Grant Park hosted the draft in 2015 and 2016 after New York’s Radio City Music Hall was the draft’s site from 1964 to 2014. There’s no word yet on what venue Philadelphia will choose to host.
The 2017 draft will come full circle in Philadelphia, as the City of Brotherly Love hosted the first-ever NFL draft at a Ritz-Carlton Hotel in 1936. Philly has hosted 14 drafts altogether, the most recent coming in 1960.
The draft could be uneventful for the host team, however; the Philadelphia Eagles currently don’t have a first-round pick in 2017 after trading up to draft quarterback Carson Wentz No. 2 overall in the 2016 draft. They also could lose their 2017 seventh-round pick if Mark Sanchez doesn’t make the Denver Broncos’ 53-man roster, which now looks like a possibility.
It appears the draft could be on the move again in 2018, as Dallas is making a push to host the annual event. Philadelphia also is in the mix to keep the draft in the same city, while Chicago, Canton, Denver, Green Bay, Jacksonville, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh have expressed interest in hosting, as well.
Thumbnail photo via Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports Images
