National Football League cancels annual meeting, delaying vote on new rules
Concerns over the coronavirus finally impacted the NFL’S off-season on Thursday.
The league announced in a statement at mid-afternoon that its four-day annual meeting — slated for Palm Beach, Fla., from March 29 to April 1 — has been cancelled.
The annual meeting is the most important of the four quarterly owners meetings, as that’s where short- and long-term pressing issues are dealt with, and where new playing-rule proposals are discussed, argued over and voted on.
As well, each of the 32 clubs is represented at the annual meeting not only by its principal owner, but by top executives, the general manager and head coach, as well.
Commissioner Roger Goodell informed clubs Thursday the decision was made “after careful consideration and consultation with medical experts.”
Added the league:
“There will be full consideration and votes on any open football issues, including playing rules, bylaws and resolutions — as well as other business matters that were on the agenda for the annual meeting — at the spring meeting scheduled for May 19-20.
“Most of the first day will be dedicated to football-related issues. Head coaches and general managers will participate in the meeting.”
In the meantime, essential
NFL business operations will continue, the league said. Any further measures to both protect employees and help with society-wide efforts to contain the global COVID-19 outbreak may be considered, too.
“We will continue to closely monitor developments, consult with leading experts, and be prepared to make any changes necessary as circumstances warrant,” the statement said.
Earlier Thursday, the NFL let it be known the new league year will begin as scheduled, next Wednesday at 4 p.m.
That’s the moment when
(a) teams must get under the salary cap (expected to be about US$200 million per club); (b) free agency begins; (c) any prearranged trades can be submitted for approval; and (d) when teams must have submitted offers to any pending restricted free agents, or players with less than three accrued seasons with expiring contracts.
So, it appears most of the rest of the sports world will be shut down when we all find out early next week on what team Tom Brady — plus a slew of other top quarterbacks and star free agents at other positions — will play in 2020.
In other words, all eyes will be on the NFL. As usual.
That said, teams began Thursday to recall talent evaluators from the road over COVID-19 concerns, including the Super
Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, who announced:
“All non-essential Chiefs personnel have been instructed to work remotely for a minimum of 14 days beginning Monday, March 16. Additionally, we have suspended business travel and all non-essential travel for our coaches and scouts for the time being as we continue to monitor the impact of COVID-19.”
Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder was first to announce such action for his club: “We have informed all of our scouts and coaches that they must return to their home bases and travel will be suspended until further notice.”
The Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions likewise cancelled scouting trips and asked non-essential staff to work remotely.
What other actions might the NFL take for COVID-19 hysteria’s sake?
The league might wind up having to move the April 23-25 draft from Las Vegas, or scale it back drastically.
As for 2020 season preparations, veteran players don’t report to team facilities until April — with players on teams with new head coaches returning as early as April 6, the rest as early as April 20.
RULES PROPOSALS
With the annual meeting canned, there’s no urgency for the league to release the competition committee’s official rules proposals for owners to mull. Those usually are the only ones with a good chance of being passed.
Each year, teams submit rules proposals too — either alone or in groups — and the NFL this week announced that seven such proposals will go before owners, now at their May spring meeting.
Four of them were submitted by the Philadelphia Eagles:
■ to simplify the blindside block rule to prevent unnecessary fouls, by limiting the foul to blocked players who could not foresee or expect the block;
■ to make permanent the expansion of automatic replay reviews on scoring plays, try attempts and turnovers negated by a foul;
■ to provide an alternative to the onside kick, for a trailing team hoping to retain possession following a score, by attempting a 4th-and-15 play from its own 25-yard line, up to twice per game;
■ to restore pre-season and regular-season overtime periods to 15 minutes, from 10, for “competitive equity” and “fan engagement.”
As for the other three rulechange proposals submitted by teams:
■ Miami wants the defence to have the option of having the game clock restart even after declining an offensive penalty that occurs late in a half;
■ Baltimore and the Los Angeles Chargers want to add a “booth umpire” as an eighth game official, to assist the seven-person on-field crew;
■ And the Ravens and the Chargers also want to add a senior technology adviser, to aid the on-field crew.