I have to confess: I love football (lifelong New York Jets fan), but I typically don’t watch the NFL Draft. Usually, I just wait for the picks to be posted the next morning.

But Thursday evening, I sat down on the couch with my 9-year-old son Jack and watched (until his bedtime, of course.) We are big sports fans, and the idea of a major live sports event was too tempting to pass up.

There is plenty of opportunity for football lovers to watch. The draft, which was headquartered out of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s basement, will be broadcast for 15 hours over three days on ESPN, ABC and the NFL Network. Last year a record 47.5 million viewers tuned in. Even more are expected to watch this year with so many people sheltering at home hungry for new sports content, because the coronavirus pandemic has forced the cancellation of all actual games.

There is a lot going on around us right now, but folks do miss sports.

"This is a very surreal time, and I think sports in many instances is something that people look back at, something that helps them chart the passage of time," says Wall Street Journal Sports Columnist Jason Gay. "So I think it's perfectly fine to say that you miss some of these things."

Like baseball: the tradition of opening day was postponed for the Mets and Yankees and all the other major league teams. March Madness became March Sadness. The NBA and NHL seasons came to an abrupt halt just before the playoffs. Soccer, NASCAR, the pro golf tour too.

Golf.com Social Media Editor Tim Reilly, a huge Mets fan, says there is no doubt that sports is an escape for many people.

"It's a form of entertainment and it's here to get us through tough times like this," Reilly says. "That is what sports does best."

Sports networks like ESPN have been presenting other original content to fill airtime. "The Last Dance," a docuseries about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls' championship dynasty, was moved up from June to April. Its debut Sunday night became ESPN's most-viewed documentary ever.

"I'm willing to bet it was so good that it's going to become the 'Tiger King' of sports, and there will have to be a few extra episodes made to keep people entertained," says comedian Joe Pontillo, who traditionally appears with me on NY1 for the Mets home opener at Citi Field.

When will sports come back? Jason Gay says in the end, it won't be up to the leagues.

"It will be up to city officials, it will be up to health officials to say what's wise and what's not," he says.

He notes that if  the push by some for games with no fans to get sports rolling again becomes a reality, we will realize quite quickly how significant a live audience is to players and even viewers watching at home. But fans almost certainly will tune in. It will be something. Something resembling the world they knew before. The games they love. The teams and players they love to cheer for.