“You have to be willing to be prepared to adapt,” Goodell said in an interview on ESPN. “You can’t expect or anticipate every move, but your job is to try to be as prepared as possible.”

As the nation’s largest sports league — with $15 billion in annual revenue and counting — the N.F.L. is more than a bellwether, it is an enormous economic ecosystem. The absence of games will hurt not only the thousands of workers at team facilities and stadiums, but also the biggest corporations and the television networks that do business with the N.F.L.

A continued shutdown of the league could also rattle the country’s already frayed psyche. The N.F.L. dominates the national sports conversation from Labor Day through the Super Bowl in February, and the league’s off-season calendar, including the three-day draft, is part of its drive to be a 365-day-a-year experience.

For now, the league is milking its moment as the only show in town. The N.F.L. may be the largest and most popular league in the country, but this time of year the sports landscape is often dominated by the start of baseball, the playoffs in basketball and hockey, the Masters golf tournament and the Kentucky Derby. With no competition, the N.F.L. has seen a surge in interest as it produces fresh news about its teams and players.

During the first round of the draft on Thursday, the league not only promoted the draft picks and their many sponsors, but also invited music stars, comedians and other celebrities to help generate charitable donations. Despite the oddity of seeing players and coaches sitting in their homes, the more muted draft appeared to match the moment in a lockdown world. The N.F.L. said that an average of 15.6 million people watched the first round, which was broadcast on ABC, ESPN, ESPN Deportes and NFL Network. Viewership was 26 percent higher than the record set in 2014, which was before ABC showed the event.

Sports have often been a comfort in troubling times, most notably two decades ago, when baseball provided succor for a country reeling from the extremist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. That can’t happen the same way in this era of social distancing.