Poe the Raven
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- Mar 16, 2019
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More than ever before, the NFL is going to be relying on new technology for the 2020 NFL Draft, with the coronavirus outbreak necessitating a “fully virtual” selection meeting.
And that worries Ravens coach John Harbaugh.
Via Jonas Shaffer of the Baltimore Sun, Harbaugh said he’s concerned about unauthorized entry into the Ravens’ videoconferencing during the April 23-25 event.
“Yeah, big concern,” Harbaugh said during a Zoom conference call with reporters. “Every time I read something in, like, the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times that talks about how messed up Zoom is, or some of these other deals . . . I immediately text it to our IT people, and [director of football administration] Nick Matteo’s one of those guys, and they assure me that we are doing everything humanly possible. . . .
“We’ll see what happens. I really wouldn’t want the opposing coaches to have our playbook or our draft meetings. That would be preferable, if we can stay away from that.”
The suddenly ubiquitous telecommunications company has responded to security threats with a number of measures including password protection and waiting rooms. But Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta joked that his concerns are of the old school variety.
“I’ve got more confidence in Zoom than I do [executive vice president] Ozzie [Newsome] and John and [owner] Steve [Bisciotti] and [team president] Dick [Cass] with a copy of our draft board that they just, like, leave in their car in the front seat or something like that,” he said.
Regardless, the IT departments of 32 NFL teams are more important than ever, and will be relied upon heavily to have secure systems (and redundancies) in place before teams begin choosing new players.