when did they start televising the nfl draft
National Football League Draft In 1980, Chet Simmons, president of the year-old ESPN, asked Pete Rozelle if the fledgling network could broadcast coverage of the draft live on ESPN. Although Rozelle did not believe it would be entertaining television, he agreed.[54][55] In 1988, the NFL moved the draft from weekdays to the weekend and ESPN's ratings of the coverage improved dramatically.[54][56]
Draft lottery (1969) Draft lotteries were conducted again in 1970 (for those born in 1951) and from 1971 to 1975 (for 1952 to 1956 births). The draft numbers issued in 1972 were never used the next year to call for induction into service, because the last call was December 7 and authority to induct expired on June 30, 1973.