League tells teams training camps will open on time
Players association still pushing safety protocols
The NFL has informed teams their training camps will open on time.
League executive Troy Vincent sent a memo to general managers and head coaches on Saturday informing them rookies can report by Tuesday, quarterbacks and injured players by Thursday and all other players can arrive by July 28.
Rookies for Houston and Kansas City are set to report Monday.
The league and the NFL Players Association are still discussing testing for the coronavirus and other health and safety protocols. Union leadership expressed several concerns in a 90-minute conference call with reporters Friday.
However, under the collective bargaining agreement, the NFL can impose report dates.
The NFLPA could file a grievance to argue the league isn’t providing a safe work environment under the labor deal.
“The league is management,” NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said Friday. “They have the exclusive right, just like somebody who owns a plant, regarding when it opens and when it closes. They want training camps to open on time. The role of the union is to hold them accountable about whether it’s safe to open now.”
The players’ union wants players tested daily for the virus. A joint committee of doctors, trainers and strength coaches formed by the NFL and NFLPA recommended testing every other day.
Other outstanding issues include number of preseason games. The league has planned to cut the exhibition schedule from four games to two while the union wants none.
Both sides are also negotiating economic issues and questions remain on players’ rights to opt out of playing.
OPTING OUT? The 60-game mini-season Major League Baseball assembled this summer was still long enough that a dozen or so health-concerned players, even a few stars, decided to skip it.
The NFL’s player pool is more than twice as big as MLB’s, groomed for fundamental extreme-contact activities of blocking, tackling and covering that are as inherently ripe for virus spread as any in sports. If the 2020 season can get off the ground this fall amid the global paralysis of the COVID-19 pandemic, players opting out will be a sure bet.
For those who choose to sideline themselves with a medically approved high-risk condition, will they continue to receive their salary and benefits and accrue a season toward free agency eligibility? Who will sign off on the categories and the diagnosis?
As with the rest of society in the fight against this unseen, fierce and unprecedented foe, the list of questions is far longer than the answer key.
“I just pray that everybody can be safe. A lot of people have families. People have kids,” Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry said.
With the targeted July 28 start for training camp for most teams fast approaching, the owners and the players have a lot of health-related protocols to establish so this precarious season can even kick off. Opt-out clauses are among them.
One potential point of lingering contention between the league and the NFL Players Association is whether COVID-19 will be categorized as a “non-football injury.” Players on the reserve non-football injury list are not required to be paid.
In baseball, high-risk individuals were allowed to opt out with pay. San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, however, will not receive a salary because his reasoning for not playing was specific to he and his wife adopting identical twin girls.
For an NFL player who makes a similar decision, the NFLPA will push for at least service time accrual and benefits eligibility, even if salary is withheld.
To date, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said Friday, no players have formally decided to skip the 2020 season out of virus concern.
“Are there some things that are incredibly important to our players about being able to opt out? Yes. We don’t want players unfairly punished by it, in the same way that we wouldn’t want our players unfairly punished … because of testing positive,” Smith said.
The NFL declined to make chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills available for an interview this week or comment on the opt-out issues, citing the sensitivity of the active negotiations with the union.
“We will continue to implement the health and safety protocols developed jointly with the NFLPA, and based on the advice of leading medical experts, including review by the CDC,” the league said Friday in a statement.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers left tackle Donovan Smith said recently on social media that playing this season during the pandemic “does not seem like a risk worth taking” for him and the health of his family.
New York Giants left tackle Nate Solder was more blunt last week on Twitter: “If the NFL doesn’t do their part to keep players healthy,” he posted, “there is no football in 2020. It’s that simple.”
The culture of the sport, from the natural aggression that unfolds on the field to the short careers made more urgent by the lack of guaranteed contracts, could well prompt a fringe player to ignore a heightened personal or family risk out of fear of losing his spot on the roster or his place in the league.