NFL Confirms Phones Went Down for 2 Picks During 2019 NFL Draft 1st Round

The National Football League confirmed its phones were down for two picks amid the first round of the 2019 NFL draft Thursday night, but there were no major complications during the outage.

On Friday, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported a source said the phone lines weren't available for about seven minutes, but the NFL provided secondary contact information so teams could continue to relay details to the league about picks and trades.

"The phone system went down for two picks," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told PFT. "As planned, we notified each club via email to switch to cell phone in the event they need to call Selection Square. The system was reset and there were no further issues. We have contingency plans for our contingency plans and have multiple ways to communicate with club personnel."

Although the situation didn't appear to have much impact on the opening round, sources from two teams argued "the league was not as prepared as it could have been for what should have been an anticipated complication," per Florio.

Besides the brief phone issue and some rain, the first night of the draft seemed like a smashing success for both the NFL and the host city of Nashville, Tennessee.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said there were an estimated 200,000 people in attendance for Day 1 of the draft as he announced the final pick of the first round—Arizona State Sun Devils wide receiver N'Keal Harry to the reigning Super Bowl champion New England Patriots.

The draft continues Friday night with the second and third rounds starting at 7 p.m. ET. It concludes Saturday with the final four rounds beginning at 12 p.m. ET.