Seahawks GM Rips Up Walls to Install 25 Screens for Virtual NFL Draft
25 screens?!
This week’s NFL draft promises to be a fascinating one. Even if there are no major surprises with the picks and trades, we can count on being entertained by at least one team’s struggles with technology. With the draft taking place virtually for the first time, it’s a good bet that something will go wrong. Or maybe it will get hacked.
Teams are trying their best to avoid any technological hiccups, sending IT specialists out to the homes of coaches and general managers to make sure everything is hooked up properly. Lions GM Bob Quinn is going to have an IT employee stationed outside his house in a Winnebago for the entire draft.
Some GMs have done a good job quickly converting their home offices into draft war rooms, like the Niners’ John Lynch and Tom Telesco of the Chargers.
They have clean, organized spaces with plenty of screens and communication devices.
And then there’s Seahawks GM John Schneider. Schneider told reporters Tuesday that he had to do some fast and dirty home remodeling to turn his dining room into a war room.
“I’m a very visual person, so everything's there in case things fall apart from a technology standpoint,” Schneider said. “I think there’s like, I don’t know, it feels like 25 screens. But I like the one-on-one interaction. I like being able to have private conversations with Pete [Carroll] throughout the draft process.”
Carroll has his own elaborate setup, with backup phones for his backup phones. His only concern is blowing a fuse and shutting the whole thing down.
“The process is it calls for a lot of setup. Johnny has got his stuff going—he’s got a couple things beyond what that I need,” Carroll said. “I’ve got boards that wrap around the room. I've got seven screens going, which is not uncomfortable for me. I kind of like all the activity. We’ve got our land lines. We have got our cell phones, our backup cell phones, all kinds of stuff… It’s kind of cool. It’s all high-tech. We have our own little room here to do our press conference thing that’s set off to the side, as well. We just both hope that we don’t get overloads on the circuits and everything shuts down, you know, because we’ve got a lot more things plugged in than we normally do around here.”
And you thought organizing a conference call for your job was complicated.
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