{"id":200354,"date":"2026-05-23T01:00:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T01:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/200354\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T01:00:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T01:00:29","slug":"dont-think-we-can-have-this-here-former-county-executive-shares-how-nfl-almost-didnt-bring-draft-to-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/200354\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Don’t Think We Can Have This Here’: Former County Executive Shares How NFL Almost Didn’t Bring Draft To Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

This offseason has been a big one for the Pittsburgh Steelers as they try to make a Super Bowl push. However, it\u2019s been important for the city of Pittsburgh, too, with the NFL draft coming to town. The event was a major success,<\/a> shattering the attendance record set by Detroit in 2024. However, former Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitgerald recently revealed that the NFL almost didn\u2019t bring the draft to Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will tell one quick story that almost blew it for us,\u201d Fitzgerald said on the Sacred Grounds featuring Robby and Uncle Paulie podcast.<\/a> \u201cTwo or three years ago, it was opening day for the Pirates in early April, and Point State Park was underwater. The riverwalk was underwater. I think it was [2023], [2024].<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NFL was visiting around that time and they said, \u2018I don\u2019t think we can have this here.\u2019 And we said, \u2018This only happens once every hundred years. It\u2019s a hundred-year flood.\u2019 We all kept our fingers crossed, and guess what? It was beautiful when the NFL draft came in April [2026].\u201d<\/p>\n

It was 2024 when rain pelted Pittsburgh, causing the rivers to rise and flood parts of the city. Pittsburgh saw some of its worst storms in recent memory, creating a lot of complications. That included the closure of the North Shore Riverwalk, which is near where the<\/a> 2026 draft was ultimately held in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

Therefore, it\u2019s not surprising to hear that NFL representatives were apprehensive about bringing the draft to Pittsburgh. It\u2019s one of the league\u2019s biggest events, and the NFL can\u2019t afford to have it ruined.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s weather is often uncooperative, especially in April. The flooding in 2024 was on the extreme side, but there was a real chance that the draft could\u2019ve dealt with rough weather in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, the NFL was convinced to bring the draft to the Steelers\u2019 hometown, despite the unpredictable weather. As Fitzgerald says, things went almost as well as they could have, too. The first two days of the draft were beautiful. While the third day wasn\u2019t as nice early, it still could\u2019ve been much worse.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s weather might keep the city from ever hosting a Super Bowl. However, the draft isn\u2019t a bad consolation prize. Perhaps it will return to Pittsburgh one day and, with any luck, the weather will cooperate again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This offseason has been a big one for the Pittsburgh Steelers as they try to make a Super…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[31803,73,75,74,1833],"class_list":["post-200354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}