Roger Goodell is going to get booed Thursday night in Pittsburgh during the 2026 NFL Draft, and both sides of the equation know it. The NFL commissioner has walked into a wave of jeers at nearly every draft stage since 2011, and the league long ago stopped treating the reception as a problem to solve. It has become the ceremonial opening of the draft broadcast, a pregame ritual with over/unders attached to it.
When NFL Fans Started Booing Roger Goodell
Goodell replaced Paul Tagliabue in 2006 and hosted his first draft the next spring. The early years weren’t particularly hostile. Tagliabue had been cheered at Radio City Music Hall. Goodell in 2007 got polite applause as he opened the night with the Raiders’ pick of JaMarcus Russell, and he still drew a mix of cheers and jeers as late as 2012.
The modern tradition traces to the 2011 draft. The owners had locked out the players after CBA talks collapsed, and fans packed into Radio City had a direct line to vent. Goodell opened the night, the crowd booed, and chants of “We want football!” broke out as he announced Cam Newton to Carolina at No. 1.
Goodell smiled, told the crowd “I agree. I’m with you” from the podium, and tweeted the same sentiment minutes later.
The booing hardened into ritual once the draft started traveling. Chicago greeted Goodell with deafening hostility in 2015, the first year the draft was held outside New York in 50 years. Philadelphia outdid it in 2017. Nashville in 2019 drew boos loud enough that Goodell brought Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota on stage to try to defuse them. It didn’t work.
Every host city since has followed the template, with Detroit’s 2024 event offering the lone modern detour: the boos flipped to cheers the moment Eminem walked out to join Goodell on stage.
The reasons have never been one thing. Goodell has absorbed blame for the league’s handling of domestic violence cases, Colin Kaepernick’s blacklisting, officiating controversies, and rule changes fans felt altered the game’s character. He is also the public face of owner interests in collective bargaining. Pressed for specifics at recent drafts, plenty of fans land on some version of “because he’s Roger Goodell.”
How Goodell and the NFL Lean Into the Draft Booing Tradition
The league stopped fighting the reception and started packaging it pretty quickly. During the 2020 “Basement Draft,” held remotely because of the pandemic, Goodell paused, turned to the screen, and invited the audio. “It’s a draft tradition and one that I genuinely enjoy,” he said. “Let’s hear from you right now.” When the virtual boos seemed thin, he pushed for more. The NFL posted to X: “Nobody loves the boos like @nflcommish.”
Bud Light ran a #BooTheCommish campaign alongside that same 2020 event, inviting fans to submit boos online. Daily fantasy apps have since turned the opening boo into a market of its own, running over/under contests on how long it lasts. What started in 2011 as unfiltered protest has become something closer to professional wrestling crowd work, with Goodell playing the heel and the audience playing along.
Pittsburgh adds a wrinkle most host cities haven’t carried. The NFL suspended Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf two games in December for a physical confrontation with a Detroit fan, upheld the ban on appeal, and voided $45 million in future guaranteed money from his four-year, $132 million contract.
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Any Steelers fan who wants to turn Thursday night into a referendum on that decision has the stage, the microphone, and a hometown crowd ready to help.
Whatever mix of genuine frustration and performative ritual hits the stage when Goodell opens the 2026 draft, the commissioner will smile through it. He always does.
