fbpx
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
insidetailgating.com logo

Inside Tailgating

  • Food
  • Drink
  • Gear
    • Grills
  • Tips
  • Activities
  • Homegating
  • Contact
  • Food
  • Drink
  • Gear
  • Tips
  • Activities
  • Homegating
  • About Us
  • Magazine
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest
NFL Draft and country music colliding 2

NFL Draft and country music colliding

By Carroll Walton
Published: 04/24/2019
FacebookTweetPinEmail

Last Updated on 06/24/2021 by Inside Tailgating

The NFL Draft is already the center of the sports universe on an otherwise afterthought of a weekend in late April, but this year the draft is being held in the capital of country music?! Talk about the best of both worlds! Nashville is the host of this year’s NFL draft, which starts Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET and runs through Saturday (beginning at noon.) It will bring some of the best acts in country music, incredible nightlife, and the enthusiasm of one of the best tailgating events in sports to one location. Some 100,000 people are expected to converge on Nashville for each day of the draft, and why the heck not? (For those who can’t, here’s a complete TV schedule for how you can catch the draft, click here.)

ITtimmcgraw
Tim McGraw (left) with Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel

Country music icon Tim McGraw is the headliner of a free concert, taking the stage after the final pick of the third round on Friday night. Dierks Bentley will close out the three-day event with a free performance Saturday after the draft ends, capping a run of 20 musical guests over the three days.

McGraw was on the steering committee that helped bring the draft to Nashville. (The draft was held in New York for 57 years before the NFL took it on the road with stops in Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas and next year Las Vegas.) McGraw told the Associated Press he started envisioning what a draft in Nashville could look like while watching 250,000 show up in Philadelphia for the 2017 NFL draft.

“My first thought was, ‘Man I’d love to be down there and do a big concert right in the middle of Broadway down there with the stadium as a backdrop for the weekend of the draft,'” McGraw told the Associated Press. “I just thought it was something very special and I wanted to be involved with it. And I wanted to get it here.”

Country star Luke Bryan is actually “crossing over” for this event, joining ABC’s broadcast team, alongside Robin Roberts. ABC, ESPN and NFL Network are all broadcasting live. Tune in at 7 p.m. Thursday night to see if the Arizona Cardinals do indeed take Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray of Oklahoma with the No. 1 overall pick or stir the pot by trading the pick. All the drama – set to an incredible Nashville soundtrack – is about to unfold.

ITnashville2.jpg

“I think every year we have raised the bar, and I am incredibly confident that in Nashville, we’ll raise it again,” said Matt Shapiro, Vice President, Event Strategy & Integration at the National Football League. “Just how special that downtown area is, and the energy that comes on every single day of the week, it is a really exciting prospect to think about bringing the energy and excitement of our draft to an area that on its own has that level of energy and excitement. I think it has that multiplier effect that puts the draft at a level we’ve never seen before.”

  • Carroll Rogers Walton headshot
    Carroll Walton

    Senior Contributor for Inside Tailgating magazine and insidetailgating.com, freelance writer and author of "Ballplayer," the Chipper Jones biography that came out in April of 2017. Former sportswriter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wife, mother of three young sons and certified Dookie.

    View all posts

In Case You Missed It👇:
The Ultimate Menu Planning Guide For Super Bowl LVI
The Ultimate Menu Planning Guide For Super Bowl LVI
Tailgating Appetizers We Love To Serve At Christmas
Tailgating Appetizers We Love To Serve At Christmas
Our Ultimate Holiday Tailgating Gift-Giving Guide
Our Ultimate Holiday Tailgating Gift-Giving Guide
Our Tailgater’s Guide To An Easy Thanksgiving
Our Tailgater’s Guide To An Easy Thanksgiving
Our Master Tailgating Game Gift Guide Right In Time For The Holidays
Our Master Tailgating Game Gift Guide Right In Time For The Holidays
Our Master Guide To Easy Tailgating Recipes
Our Master Guide To Easy Tailgating Recipes
FacebookTweetPinEmail
Activities
Previous Post: « Sam Adams "juices up" Summer Ale Sam Adams “juices up” Summer Ale
Next Post: New twist on Mint Juleps New twist on Mint Juleps »
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Inside Tailgating
  • About Us
  • Cookie Policy (US)
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact us
  • Shop

Copyright © 2022 · Inside Tailgating · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!