Why do hundreds of thousands cram into an open space to watch the NFL Draft in person? Because they can

PITTSBURGH – The drive from Jasper was about 7 hours, and it was worth every minute and every mile to see Indiana football celebrated once again. Chase Rudolph, Jeff Braun and Joe Buck (no, not that Joe Buck) were aware when they hopped in the car they would not see, in person, the Hoosier who would become the first overall pick in the NFL Draft. They would hear his name called, though, and that would be enough.

It took a lot longer than necessary, since the entire football world knew quarterback Fernando Mendoza would be the first overall selection, but after 6 minutes commissioner Roger Goodell arrived on the stage to read that name into the microphone and the 2026 draft officially was moving.

“We’re all IU fans, go to IU football games, and it’s been painful for years and years and years,” Rudolph told the Sporting News. “Obviously, the past season has been a miracle. It started slow, kind of gained momentum and every moment you’re like: What’s happening here? Ended up winning the national championship. So in drinking terms, this is kind of like our nightcap, coming here and watching Fernando lock down the first pick and just sending that whole season off.”

For another night at least, Indiana football was No. 1, and still the Hoosiers were secondary to the Steel City on this occasion.

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Pittsburgh and the surrounding region have worked furiously to stage a memorable NFL Draft, and Goodell estimated the crowd assembled in front of him at more than 300,000 as the proceedings began Thursday night. The actual number was closer to 320,000. All I can say is I’ve seen a football game at Ohio Stadium since the capacity was pushed to nearly 103,000 and attended an open-air audience with Pope John Paul II outside Saint Peter’s Basilica in 1996, but never before have I been a part of a crowd even close to as massive as gathered on the east side of Acrisure Stadium.

The areas proximate to the staging of the draft were electric well into the evening: PNC Park was open for food and drinks and an easy path from the Clemente Bridge over toward Acrisure, and the river walk component of its outfield concourse was packed with more than a thousand people enjoying the occasion. The bars and restaurants on the North Shore had lines out front with people eager to enter. And all this while the draft audience remained staggeringly large.

They came from so many places representing so many teams. By the time I had walked the 2 miles from PPG Paints Arena to Acrisure and before I’d even made it across the Roberto Clemente Bridge that spans the Allegheny River, I’d seen people wearing jerseys of 20 of the league’s 32 teams. Once I was in the proximity of the draft “theater”, as they were calling it, all had been represented.

Some more obviously than others, of course.

Although the stadium is at or near capacity for every Steelers’ home game, there never have been so many clad in black-and-gold in one place. There were random jerseys of such players as Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala, Tyler Matakevich and, as if to commemorate one of the team’s most heartbreaking drafts ever, Kenny Pickett.

Never forget, Steelers fans. Never forget.

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It took a while to find someone there representing the Arizona Cardinals. Oddly, Jarod Preston arrived not from Phoenix or Tucson but Sarnia, Ontario, a 5-hour drive from Pittsburgh. He became a fan of the team for 20 years because he liked their colors, and because he liked birds as a young boy.

Some of us come by our fandom through geography. Some by other means.

Although lives about, let’s see, 3,300 miles from Glendale, Preston got the chance to see his favorite team play last season in Dallas.

“I’ve gone to the last three drafts. It’s a free event, and I like going to different exhibits and going to different cities,” Preston told Sporting News. “It’s been phenomenal; it’s just different. They incorporate each city into everything, so it’s really neat. I meet people from all over, and people point out my jersey because I’m a Cardinals fan – it’s unique.”

Cheryl Stewart and Tim Macdonald have been to the past 10 drafts. It’s unlikely they’ll leave Pittsburgh believing this city surpassed their choice as best draft venue: Nashville set a standard there that will be difficult to surpass. (However, if they take my recommendation to eat breakfast at Pamela’s Diner, they’ll at least enjoy the best pancakes of their lives). Stewart was open about their fandom, telling SN:

“We’re stupid, crazy-ass fans. We spend way too much money on the NFL.”

The two of them run a foundation called What The Buc Really Matters, which stages a tailgate party in advance of each Tampa Bay home game and donates the proceeds from each one to a local charity. “She runs the tailgate,” Macdonald said. “I attend.” They partner with a barbecue company that provides all of the food.

“Today is day one, so we don’t know, but this city itself has embraced NFL fans pretty good,” Stewart said. “Nashville lends a lot of things that other cities can’t do as well. But the airport here was ready for us. The hotel was ready for us. The bars and restaurants have been ready for us, and they’ve been great to us.”

Just as Preston was an Arizona fan from Canada, Neil Decker is a Raiders fan from central Ohio. He drove over to Pittsburgh with his three young sons and arrived wearing a No. 81 Raiders jersey. And, no, he’s not displaced from Oakland, LA or Vegas. He chose to follow the Raiders because it was the favorite team of an older boy he admired from his neighborhood. Decker’s eldest son, Krew, went along with his dad. But middle son Kix liked the Panthers’ colors. And youngest son Kope preferred the Bengals because, well, that’s the closest team and a second-grade teacher converted him.

“We’ve had a good time. The kids ended up going out on the field at the stadium, did the little Play 60’ thing,” Neil said. “We didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into.”

But they come, because it is an event.

Many years ago, writer Kyle Veltrop wrote an article for The Sporting News suggesting the draft should move outside New York, where it primarily was staged in mid-sized indoor venues such as The Theater at Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall, and into larger spaces in other cities. A league official told him that was a ridiculous idea.

By 2015, the league was convinced otherwise. And a full two city blocks from the stage at Thursday night’s draft, where Rudolph, Braun and Buck stood wearing their IU gear amid a sea of NFL jerseys, it appeared to have been a brilliant concept too long delayed.

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Why do hundreds of thousands cram into an open space to watch the NFL Draft in person? Because they can

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