The IT team wears blue or white masks and latex gloves upon arrival at the Snead house last Saturday afternoon. As they begin the most unusual draft set up in NFL history, they pass underneath a framed picture hanging in the kitchen, the one that shows two hands locked in an embrace and says “hug more often.” Kara Snead gifted that print to her husband, Les, the Rams’ general manager and a notorious antihugger, even before COVID-19 turned the elbow bump into a fashionable greeting. “I had it right the whole time,” he deadpans.
The masks, the gloves, the physical contact jokes—all speak to the unusual circumstances all NFL teams must confront for the league’s annual draft to take place as scheduled on Thursday through Saturday.