Adam Minter, Columnist

The NFL Draft Should Never Be a Reason to Close Schools

April 25, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC

Adam Minter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the business of sports. He is the author, most recently, of “Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale."

The NFL’s draft playbook needs a rewrite.
Photographer: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images North America

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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.1