Stay-at-home order means no travel for training camp
Tim Flynn was looking forward to one final year as the mayoral host of training camp for the Dallas Cowboys in Oxnard, California.
So much for that.
The pandemic forced the NFL to abandon, at least for this year, the fading but still time-honored tradition of teams traveling to training camp.
The league’s version of a stay-at-home order will end the latest California run for the Cowboys, stop the 54year streak for the Pittsburgh Steelers in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and keep the Carolina Panthers away from the only campsite the 25-year-old franchise has known.
And Flynn won’t get that final, formal goodbye with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Camps are scheduled to start July 28.
“It’s a little bit of a disappointment for me individually because I’m moving on,” said Flynn, who is running for another office in Ventura County after 14 years on the Oxnard City Council, the last eight as mayor.
“But you know what? I’ll still be able to see the practices. I just won’t be mayor doing it. That’s kind of like my own special relationship there.”
Flynn is confident the Cowboys will be back after one year in Texas. Dallas
will hold the entirety of camp in its home market for the first time. It will be in the sparkling facility that opened four years ago and can handle the logistics because of an indoor field that can keep players out of the Texas heat.
But even before the opening of the sprawling complex 30 minutes north of Dallas, Flynn said he never worried about whether Jones would quit bringing the Cowboys to California.
Likewise, Flynn isn’t concerned that Jones & Co. will suddenly realize they have everything they need in the suburb of Frisco and don’t have to make the NFL’s longest trip for training camp: about 1,500 miles.