NFL announces opening night festivities … I know people have been very anxious to get the details of the of the NFL’s plans for the opening night of the draft, now just 20 days away. However, they can relax as the NFL announced the specifics of those plans yesterday. While the actual draft – you know when teams pick players – doesn’t actually start until 8 PM ET on the 27th, the ‘celebration’ will get underway just before 5 PM when the attending prospects will walk the NFL Red Carpet courtesy of TCL on the Memorial Courtyard at the National WWI Museum and Memorial. Portions of the ‘pick walk’ will be televised as part of NFL Network’s Draft Kickoff show, anchored by Melissa Stark who will be interviewing the various prospects. At some point, multi-Grammy nominated Kansas City singer-songwriter Oleta Adams will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing” live from downtown. Meanwhile, rising country music star Brittany Spencer will sing the national anthem from the National WWI Museum and Memorial as part of opening festivities. (I must confess that while I am sure that Ms. Spencer is a fine talent, the first time I read this I thought that it was actually going to be Brittany Spears doing the anthem. Now that would be cool; and think of the betting options: would she remember all of the words; any of the words, but I regress.) The Military District of Washington’s Joint Armed Forces Color Guard and United States Army Field Band Drummers will present the Nation’s Colors during the playing of the national anthem, while the U.S. Air Force will provide a flyover at the conclusion of the anthem. At the same time, the NFL Network’s Kimmi Chex and Coleen Wolfe will also host the evening’s activities in the Draft Theater with Kansas City party band Lost Wax will serve as the house band at the Draft Theater and will provide entertainment in between draft selections each day. All we can hope that they don’t actually drown out the actual draft coverage as pretty much happened a couple of years back in New Orleans. And oh yes, the actual draft selections will start around 8 PM ET, just in case anyone forgets why we’re actually there.
