Sure know how to pick ’em

The GIST: After the WNBA showed us how it’s done, it’s time for the NFL to step up to the challenge. It’s Virtual Draft Day!

Okay wait, what’s a draft again?: A player draft allows a professional league’s teams to select the best eligible amateur players to add to their rosters. In the NFL Draft, all 32 teams have one pick in each of the seven rounds (unless they traded them), and the eligible player pool is mostly made up of college players.

• Usually the NFL Draft takes place live in a centralized location, with athletes, fans and team executives attending the three-day event. This year’s Draft was originally set to take place in Las Vegas, with draft picks arriving by boat across the famous Bellagio fountain and 750,000 fans expected to attend. A low-key affair.

But now...?: They’re going digital. The Draft will be broadcast live from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s basement (seriously) in New York, with athletes and teams joining via Microsoft Teams and Zoom, from their respective homes across America.

• The NFL did a practice draft earlier this week to work out any technical glitches, and while it got off to a rocky start, everything seems to be in tip-top shape for tonight’s primetime event at 8 p.m. ET. Let’s just hope for a strong WiFi connection.

Fingers crossed. So who’s up first?: That honor goes to last season's worst team, the Cincinnati Bengals, who are projected to take QB Joe Burrow first overall. Burrow was the star QB for Louisiana State University (LSU) for two years and won last season’s College Football National Championship after being named the Heisman Trophy winner (aka the best college football player).

• If/when the Bengals pick Burrow, he’ll become just the third player (the others being Cam Newton, who was drafted in 2011 and Jameis Winston, who was drafted in 2015) this century to win the Heisman, National Championship and go first overall in the Draft. Now there’s a fun fact if we’ve ever seen one.