Commercial airliners can travel between Boston and Kansas City in less than four hours. That's less than three hours' total time in the air between takeoff and landing procedures, and it's maybe enough time to grab a snack or a package of pretzels to go along with a can of soda or cup of coffee. The time zone difference sets clocks back one hour, but that's not even really that bad for people who are used to gaining and losing minutes through Daylight Savings Time.
It's as innocuous a flight as any route out of Boston's Logan International Airport, but on Thursday morning, the distance between Massachusetts and the Missouri/Kansas border will shrink considerably when the National Football League's 2023 Draft kicks off at Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri.