NFL Draft Should Never Be a Reason to Close Schools: Adam Minter

For three days this week, Pittsburgh closed public school classrooms to make way for the National Football League Draft.

School buses and carpools gave way to gridlock, fans and security perimeters, pushing students into remote learning. This is becoming routine. Green Bay shuttered classrooms for the 2025 Draft; in 2023, Kansas City followed the same playbook.

These disruptions aren’t just a side effect of the NFL Draft experience; in the league’s own telling, they’re part of the fun. “An entire community is going to stop and, for those three days, they’re going to focus on football,” said Jon ...