{"id":40615,"date":"2016-04-28T17:44:40","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T22:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=40615"},"modified":"2016-04-28T17:46:13","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T22:46:13","slug":"nfl-draft-town-fans-line-up-for-three-days-of-football-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/nfl-draft-town-fans-line-up-for-three-days-of-football-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Draft Town: Fans line up for three days of football fun"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Nicole Sedivy<\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">NFL fans lined up to get inside Draft Town Thursday. Located in Grant Park, the gates to the football playground opened around noon.<\/p>\n<p>The three-day festival is for all ages and admission is free. Fans can race the clock in a 40-yard dash, kick a football through the uprights, take a ride on the new ferris wheel and even snap a picture with the historic Lombardi Trophy.<\/p>\n<p>[vimeo 164635982 w=474]<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Last year, Chicago hosted the NFL Draft for the first time in 50 years, and nearly 200,000 fans participated in the festivities. With a bigger Draft Town this year, the number of visitors is expected to increase.<\/p>\n<p>The teams&#8217; first and second round selections will be made across the street in the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University. Rounds three through seven will take place in Selection Square inside Draft Town.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">\n<p>Photo at top: Two young brothers cheer for NFC North rivals on Sunday afternoons. (Nicole Sedivy\/MEDILL)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Nicole Sedivy NFL fans lined up to get inside Draft Town Thursday. Located in Grant Park, the gates to the football playground opened around noon. The three-day festival is for all ages and admission is free. Fans can race the clock in a 40-yard dash, kick a football through the uprights, take a ride [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":40620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[492,31,2582],"tags":[1115,61,1112,2612,1113,1967,2676,2675,192,2674],"class_list":["post-40615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","category-sports","category-spring-2016","tag-bears","tag-chicago","tag-football","tag-grant-park","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-nfl-draft-town","tag-packers","tag-promo","tag-vikings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NFL Draft Town: Fans line up for three days of football fun - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/nfl-draft-town-fans-line-up-for-three-days-of-football-fun\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NFL Draft Town: Fans line up for three days of football fun - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Nicole Sedivy NFL fans lined up to get inside Draft Town Thursday. Located in Grant Park, the gates to the football playground opened around noon. The three-day festival is for all ages and admission is free. Fans can race the clock in a 40-yard dash, kick a football through the uprights, take a ride [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/nfl-draft-town-fans-line-up-for-three-days-of-football-fun\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-28T22:44:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-28T22:46:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/Feature-Photo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"618\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nicolesedivy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"nicolesedivy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/nfl-draft-town-fans-line-up-for-three-days-of-football-fun\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/nfl-draft-town-fans-line-up-for-three-days-of-football-fun\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"nicolesedivy\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ca29f3b6df8b12eab806cde0067247cc\"},\"headline\":\"NFL Draft Town: Fans line up for three days of football fun\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-28T22:44:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-28T22:46:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/nfl-draft-town-fans-line-up-for-three-days-of-football-fun\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":172,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/nfl-draft-town-fans-line-up-for-three-days-of-football-fun\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/s3.amazonaws.com\\\/medill.wordpress.offload\\\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2016\\\/04\\\/Feature-Photo-1.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Bears\",\"Chicago\",\"football\",\"Grant Park\",\"NFL\",\"NFL Draft\",\"NFL Draft Town\",\"Packers\",\"promo\",\"Vikings\"],\"articleSection\":[\"NFL Draft\",\"Sports\",\"Spring 2016\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/nfl-draft-town-fans-line-up-for-three-days-of-football-fun\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/nfl-draft-town-fans-line-up-for-three-days-of-football-fun\\\/\",\"name\":\"NFL Draft Town: Fans line up for three days of football fun - 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