Player tests positive, EPL clubs split on restart McFarland and Tessitore out on Monday Nights
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says sports can resume — if only members of your own household are playing. How the Premier League can restart should become clearer in the coming days.
Any restart during the coronavirus pandemic is not just reliant on the government, which is planning Tuesday to outline the path to group training by sports teams being allowed again.
The 20 Premier League clubs head into their latest conference call on Monday split over a plan to use neutral stadiums to complete the season that was halted in March.
As clubs try to create safe conditions for training and games, the risks of players gathering again have been underscored by a Brighton player testing positive for COVID-19 on Saturday. Brighton chief executive Paul Barber said the case was “a concern,” with players still only training individually at the south-coast club.
If games can resume as the league hopes by mid-June, there will not be any fans allowed inside stadiums, with forms of social distancing maintained even as some of the national lockdown restrictions are eased.
While making no mention of the return of professional sports in his Downing Street speech on Sunday, Johnson told Britons they can “play sports but only with members of your own household.” That includes golf courses and tennis courts in England being allowed to reopen from Wednesday.
The government, however, said last week it wants to see the return of the Premier League to “lift the spirits of the nation” when it is safe.
But at least six clubs are insistent on being allowed to play at home despite police saying that is not feasible.
Brighton was the first Premier League team to oppose “Project Restart." The club's announcement on Sunday that an unnamed player had contracted COVID-19 even before the reintroduction of group training reinforces how the disease is spreading despite the national lockdown that has been in place in March.
There is no need for other members of the squad or coaches to self-isolate because players have only worked in isolation when at the training base, the club said. Brighton said three players have now had the coronavirus, having announced the first diagnosis in March.
“One of the things we've asked the Premier League for is a complete plan of all of the stages of returning to play,” Barber told broadcaster Sky Sports on Sunday. “First we need to get players back training in small groups, then they need to get involved in some contact training and then training for a match before the match itself.
“So there are lots of stages, it's very complex and there are people at the Premier League working very hard to produce detailed paperwork to move through those stages as safely as possible.”
Brighton is only two points clear of the relegation zone with nine games remaining so does not want to give away home advantage for five of those fixtures, which include leader Liverpool and defending champion Manchester City due to visit the Amex Stadium.
“People will accuse us of self-interest, I totally understand that, but at this stage of the season there is self-interest at every level of the table,” Barber said.
Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland are out as ESPN's Monday Night Football announcing team, two industry sources said Saturday.
The network is planning to fill those two jobs internally, according to a source.
Steve Levy has emerged as the most likely candidate to replace Tessitore on play-by-play, two sources said. Levy has called college football since 2016 and has been a longtime SportsCenter anchor for the network.
Dan Orlovsky, Louis Riddick and Brian Griese are the top candidates for the analyst job. A three-man booth is under consideration.
ESPN also hasn't ruled out the possibility of moving its lead college football announcing team — Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit — to Monday Night Football. But Herbstreit has said that even if he works NFL games, he still would want to do college games.
The Fowler/Herbstreit scenario would be more of a possibility if this fall's college season is postponed.
Orlovsky, the former NFL backup quarterback, has seen his stock rise at the network more than perhaps anyone in the past year. The network very much likes his work on college games and on NFL Live.
ESPN also holds Riddick, the former NFL personnel executive, in high regard and twice previously considered him for the MNF job.
Last season, Levy, Riddick and Griese called the second game of ESPN's opening MNF double-header.
Levy has emerged as the front-runner for the playby-play job in part because ESPN values Levy and likes his work, and in part because ESPN's other lead announcers are closely associated with other sports: Mike Breen (NBA), Dan Shulman (baseball and college basketball) and Fowler (college football).
And ESPN isn't going to cycle back to college football announcer Sean McDonough, who was replaced by Tessitore on MNF before the 2018 season.