Facility getting coronavirus overhaul

The Browns have been very careful regarding the way they’ve navigated through the novel coronavirus pandemic, and now that the NFL is allowing coaches to return to their facilities, they are making sure that caution continues.

Facilities around the NFL opened June 1 to a limited number of employees as Phase 1 of a gradual full reopening. Phase 2 started June 5 when coaches were allowed to return as long as that complies with state directives.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has given the go-ahead for the training facilities of the Browns and Bengals to reopen in accordance with the NFL guidelines. Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski and several of his assistant coaches, though not all of them, are now working from their offices at 76 Lou Groza Blvd., instead of from home.

“We’re a people business,” Mike Nikolaus, Browns Chief Human Resources Officer, said in a story posted on the team’s website. “Whether that’s employees, whether that’s the players, whether it’s the fans, whether it’s the community, everything we focus on is about people.

“We’re working with University Hospitals. We’re working with what Governor Mike DeWine is doing, what the public officials are recommending. We’re doing everything we can to have a clean, healthy, sanitized facility for people to come in and continue to work.”

Players will be the last

group allowed back into facilities. That might not happen until training camp, although teams are hopeful of conducting live minicamps later this month. So far coaching throughout the league has been done through Zoom and other forms of digital and social media.

Teams now can have up to 100 employees in their buildings. There are several entrances to the training complex in Berea, but only one is being used. Each day, the employee, whether on the football side or business side, must check in, have his or her temperature taken and answer a series of COVID-19 related questions. They are required to wear masks once inside Browns headquarters unless he is she is alone in an office.

Several changes, at the

recommendation of Dr. James Voos, the Browns’ head physician and University Hospital’s Chairman of Orthopedic Surgery, have been made inside the facility.

• Stairways are like oneway streets, marked either up or down. The same goes for the hallways, where arrows on the floor direct people in which direction to walk to make 6 feet social distancing easier.

• Touchless water stations were added throughout the facility. Employees can access water without worrying about the spread of germs. Communal refrigerators and water fountains have been eliminated. All sinks now have touchless faucets and soap dispensers.

• Most offices now have a capacity of one. The Jim Brown board room, which

formerly sat 30, now has a capacity of six people.

• Work stations have been spread further apart and Plexiglas has been added to the top of each cubical to keep everyone further isolated.

“The Browns organization, the NFL, University Hospitals and all of our infectious disease partners have worked collaboratively,” Voos said. “The Browns organization has gone out of its way to make sure this is the safest work environment possible with employees’ safety in mind.”

NFL training facilities becoming beehives of activity again, plans to resume the NBA and NHL seasons solidifying, the return of NASCAR and PGA tournaments are signs sports are coming out of the COVID-19 mess.

For NFL players, though,

not much will change until they can get on the practice field with a guarantee the league and their respective teams will do everything possible to keep them protected from COVID 19. The virtual coaching they are receiving won’t change just because their position coach is sitting in a different chair. But so far the Browns coaches have made the best of an awkward situation.

“Initially, you are kind of concerned, obviously, as a staff coming in for the first time and not being in a face-to-face meeting with your players,” Browns offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt said on a recent Zoom conference with media covering the Browns. “That’s something that’s lacking right now — that connection and building that connection.

“There’s a lot of great information from a lot of great coaches that is now recorded that they have the ability to go back and not just hear in an installation meeting. I might get up and talk about (for example) Install 3 pass game, and then it’s gone, and then you go to your (position) coaches and then it’s gone. Now, it’s in a library. You can always go back to Install 3. You can pull up the recordings again and refresh yourself. There are some benefits to it, but it has been different and unique. I think we’re getting the most out of it that we can.”

Stefanski has said the challenges for him and his staff, even though in their first season together with the Browns, are no more daunting than the challenges faced by veteran coaching staffs.