PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – If you’ve got your countdown going – just a reminder, we’re about 21 months away from Pittsburgh being the site of the 2026 NFL Draft.
With that in mind, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said he recently apologized to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for being “such a pain” over the years in an effort to get the draft to Pittsburgh.
Speaking to our Jon Delano on Tuesday, he said his campaign for the draft began when he was at the Super Bowl in 2023 to cheer on the Philadelphia Eagles.
2026 NFL DRAFT IN PITTSBURGH
He said he watched part of the game with Commissioner Goodell and brought it up then. Shapiro said Goodell was willing to hear him because he went to school at Washington & Jefferson College in western Pennsylvania.
In the last year and a half, according to Shapiro, he just stayed on the league and worked with the Steelers and Art Rooney to make it happen.
“Whether you like football or not, Steelers fan or not, it doesn’t matter,” Governor Shapiro said. “This is huge business for the Pittsburgh area. We’re going to bring in hundreds of thousands of people from all across this country, particularly people who can make it to Pittsburgh in a one-day drive, over 70 million people in the United States can. This is a really, really big deal, it’s going to fill our hotels, our restaurants, our bars, it’s a big money-maker, and I’m thrilled we were able to achieve this.”
Governor Shapiro also said that it’s important to host the draft in 2026 because there are a lot celebrations planned for the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States, which happened here in Pennsylvania.