NFL Tells Rookies What Not to Do on Draft Night

The NFL is warning rookies about product placement during their virtual broadcast for the 2020 NFL Draft.

Here are the stories shaping both sports and business on Thursday, April 16th.

NFL is warning rookies about product placement during NFL Draft.

The NFL sent a memo to the 58 prospects scheduled to make an appearance on the NFL Draft's virtual broadcast with guidelines of acceptable behavior, clothing and even snacks. The league's main focus was for players not to have any products, brands, or logos that conflict with the league's current sponsorship partners.

The league told players they can only wear NFL Team or official league partner accessories and apparel. It also gave instructions of looking “clean” and prohibits any political statements or references to drugs and gambling according to The Action Networks Darren Rovell.

The players will receive a welcome kit that includes PepsiCo products like Frito-Lay chips and Mars Candy; Pepsi is one of the league's official sponsors.

Originally scheduled to take place in Las Vegas, the would be grand spectacle of the NFL Draft is now a virtual broadcast with players and broadcasters appearing via webcams from their homes.

Glazer's Exclusive Report Lets Down NFL Fans

Fox Sports NFL Reporter Jay Glazer teased his followers about a breaking news story for about 36 hours. There was a lot of speculation about what the report would be: Is the 2020 NFL Draft getting postponed? Is Odell Beckham Jr. getting traded?

Turns out Glazer’s story was regarding Rams center Brian Allen testing positive for COVID-19. Glazer said that Allen is the first player in the NFL to test positive for the coronavirus.

Problem is, Allen isn’t the first NFL player that tested positive. Mitchell Renz covers the Raiders and he reported the Las Vegas linebacker Quentin Polig along with his daughter and wife all tested positive for COVID-19 a month ago on March 17th.

Raiders LB Quentin Polig, his wife and daughter have the Coronavirus.

Sending my prayers.

— Raiders Report Mitchell Renz (@MitchellRenz365) March 18, 2020

Glazer’s video about Brian Allen has more than 745,000 views on Twitter and 2,500 replies, majority of which are blasting Glazer for leading on his followers regarding what he deemed an exclusive breaking news report.

Breaking news from @JayGlazer: Los Angeles Rams C Brian Allen is first NFL player to test positive for Covid-19. pic.twitter.com/pkGeD2GHJ2

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) April 16, 2020

Glazer is one of the best in the industry when it comes to breaking news, so fans were expecting something big, but as we’ve seen with no sports it’s becoming a struggle for reporters to make sure they capture their audience’s attention. Going to give Glazer a pass on this one.

Coronavirus Update

There are now over 2 million cases of the virus worldwide, and over 139,000 deaths, per data from Johns Hopkins. The U.S. has over 640,000 cases of the virus, with over 26,000 deaths.

New York has over 222,000 cases, with over 12,000 fatalities, per data from New York State’s Department of Health website.

And Spain has 182,000 cases with over 19,000 deaths. Italy has over 165,000 cases with over 21,000 deaths. New York has extended its shutdown of nonessential businesses to May 15, and Governor Andrew Cuomo has said other East Coast states will follow suit.

Switching over to the economy, jobless claims data came in at over 5.2 million. This means that there are around 22 million unemployed Americans.

TheStreet's Katherine Ross contributed to this report.