Roger Goodell stuns fans by riding a bike onto the stage before opening the 2025 NFL Draft, and there's a deeper reason why
If you are not familiar with how things are in Green Bay, you might not have understood why NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell entered the stage to open the 2025 NFL Draft riding a bike.That was a beautiful way for the league to value a long tradition of the Green Bay Packers. Every training camp, players […]
If you are not familiar with how things are in Green Bay, you might not have understood why NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell entered the stage to open the 2025 NFL Draft riding a bike.
That was a beautiful way for the league to value a long tradition of the Green Bay Packers. Every training camp, players go to the practice field riding bikes from local kids that are around to watch the team activities.
The tradition started in 1958, the first training camp in Green Bay, when Packers players used bikes provided by children to move around Lambeau Field, the parking lot and close streets.
"Before school started, young Packer fans used to wait outside the Packer dressing rooms to offer players a bike ride to the practice field," the Press-Gazette stated in a photo caption back in the 1950s. "The ride to practice is mostly downhill."
Over the past few years, this is so established in Green Bay that when teams go to Wisconsin for joint practices, the visiting team's players also ride bikes and enjoy the tradition.
The NFL even included a bike parade during the official schedule of the 2025 NFL Draft. On Saturday, Goodell and Packers president/CEO Mark Murphy rode bikes with some kids around the stadium, which possibly gave Goodell the idea to take it a step further.
Green Bay is hosting the NFL Draft for the first time ever—even though Wisconsin hosted it in 1939, but in Milwaukee.
And in a city that breathes football, the NFL are making sure to embrace tradition.
Roger Goodell is booed every year, but his role in NFL history is also very respectable. He's been in the role for almost two decades, and the draft has massively grown as an event during his tenure—which included the rotation of cities that allowed the Green Bay Community to enjoy this incredible moment.
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