As camp nears, how will handle players opting out?
The 60-game mini-season Major League Baseball assembled this summer was still long enough that a dozen or so healthconcerned 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 healthrelated protocols to establish so this precarious season can even
kick off. Testing frequency is at the top of the list. The practice schedule and necessity of exhibition games are also major points of negotiation. Then there’s the issue of opt-out clauses.
One potential point of lingering contention between the league and the NFL Players Association is whether COVID-19 will be categorized as a “nonfootball 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 him 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.
He added: “If that was your son, what options would you want him or her to have, as they made a decision about engaging in this work? I know it sounds a little utterly altruistic. It is. That’s how we try to make these decisions.”
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. “We will address additional issues in a cooperative way. All decisions will be made in an effort to put us in position to play a full regular season and postseason culminating with the Super Bowl which is the shared goal of the clubs and the players.”