NEW YORK - Joe Burrow, who won the Heisman Trophy and quarterbacked LSU to the national championship during a record-breaking 2019 college football season, is among 58 prospects who will participate remotely in this year's NFL draft.
The April 23-25 event, originally scheduled to take place in Las Vegas before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the NFL to implement dramatic changes and make it a virtual experience, will now double as a telethon to raise money to fight the coronavirus crisis.
Burrow is one of eight former LSU players who will take part, one more than Alabama, and the Southeastern Conference leads the way among leagues with 24 prospects confirmed to participate.
Normally, top prospects would be invited to appear in person, but this year's draft will essentially be conducted in a studio, with personnel for the league's 32 teams participating remotely from home.
The NFL also said that throughout the three-day event it will host a "Draft-A-Thon" to benefit COVID-19 relief efforts and pay tribute to healthcare workers and others on the front lines of the pandemic. Six charities will benefit: the American Red Cross, the CDC Foundation's All of Us, the Salvation Army and the COVID-19 response funds Feeding America, Meals on Wheels America and the United Way.
The virus has killed more than 16,000 people in the United States and fundamentally transformed American life while plunging the global economy into what is expected to be a major recession. More than one in 10 workers in the United States have lost their jobs in just the past three weeks due to the pandemic.
Despite the logistical challenges of operating a 255-pick draft remotely, teams will still have just 10 minutes between picks in the first round, seven minutes for the next two rounds and five minutes for the fourth through seventh rounds.
The Cincinnati Bengals have the No. 1 pick. Standout edge rusher Chase Young, who helped Ohio State reach the College Football Playoff this past season, is one of three Buckeyes who will take part. Young and Burrow are widely considered the top contenders to be the No. 1 pick.
The seven former Alabama Crimson Tide players who will participate are defensive backs Trevon Diggs and Xavier McKinney, receivers Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs III, linebacker Terrell Lewis, offensive tackle Jedrick Wills and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
Quarterback Jake Fromm will have two of his former Georgia Bulldogs teammates joining him as virtual participants: offensive tackle Andrew Thomas and running back D'Andre Swift.
The Tennessee Volunteers do not have any former players on the list of 58, with few locks among their ranks for the 2020 draft.
Alabama photo by Kent Gidley / Former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, shown here handing off to Brian Robinson during last year's win at Texas A&M, is the biggest gamble in the history of the NFL draft according to former New York Jets coach Rex Ryan.Tua's health
Tagovailoa's agent said he is healthy and will be ready for training camp.
Tagovailoa held a virtual pro day with former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer on Thursday after the former Alabama star's personal pro day was canceled because of the coronavirus outbreak. Video of Tagovailoa's workout will be sent to NFL teams.
He injured his hip on Nov. 15 during a game at Mississippi State and had season-ending surgery two days later. He is expected to be among the top five picks in the draft.
"His health is just fine," agent Leigh Steinberg told The Associated Press. "There's two doctors that have seen him, Dr. Lyle Cain (Alabama's orthopedic surgeon) and Dr. Chip Routt, who performed the surgery. Both have said that he is healthy and he'll be lively and ready to go for training camp and the likelihood of recurrence is very low."
Doctors cleared Tagovailoa to run and begin football activities March 9, and he has been training with Dilfer, who won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens.
"He's running around, he's bouncing around with high energy," Steinberg said.
Tagovailoa replaced Jalen Hurts in January 2018 and rallied Alabama to a victory over Georgia in the national championship game. He won the starting job later that year, beating out Hurts, then led Alabama back to another title game, where the Tide lost to Clemson.
Tagovailoa was the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2018.
AP photo by Brandon Wade / Dallas Renegades cornerback Josh Thornton warms up for an XFL game against the St. Louis Battlehawks on Feb. 9 in Arlington, Texas.XFL: Game over?
The XFL has suspended operations and laid off its employees. League workers were told of the layoffs during an in-house conference call Friday.
After canceling the remainder of its season last month because of the pandemic but promising to be back in 2021, the upstart professional football league backed by WWE has left its future in doubt.
Soon after canceling their games, league executives said they expected to be back next year. The XFL - now in its second incarnation after a one-year blip in 2001 - has eight franchises, and each played five games out of a planned 10-game schedule for 2020.
The games drew decent TV ratings early on, and the league had deals with ESPN and Fox. But spring football is a difficult challenge, as the Alliance of American Football found out in 2019, not lasting a full season.