Harbaugh says new rules will be tough to follow
WASHINGTON Earlier this week, the NFL sent teams the protocols they must follow in order for players to return to team facilities during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Many of the new rules aren’t all that different from the ones many people have been following for the past few months: Everyone must wear masks indoors; players and team personnel will be screened to determine whether they’ve had or are having symptoms; locker-rooms will be set up to keep players six feet apart; meetings with more than 20 participants must be conducted virtually unless physical distancing can be adhered to, and in-person meetings should be held outdoors.
But what works for the public might be a bit of an issue for professional football teams, at least according to Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh. “I’ve seen all the memos on that, and to be quite honest with you, it’s impossible what they’re asking us to do. Humanly impossible,” Harbaugh said Thursday in an interview with 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore. “So we’re going to do everything we can do. We’re going to space, we’re going to have masks.
“But you know, it’s a communication sport. We have to be able to communicate with each other in person. We have to practise.”
Harbaugh’s main questions seem to revolve around how teams are supposed to huddle up, how locker-rooms are supposed to work now that the players are being kept apart, how teams are supposed to conduct meetings and how players are supposed to work out. All of it, really.
“These are things the league and the (players association) needs to get a handle on and needs to get agreed with some common sense so we can operate in a 13-hour day in training camp that they’re giving us and get our work done,” said Harbaugh.
The NFL and the players’ union still have important details to hammer out when it comes to its handling of the pandemic: whether players have to quarantine before coming to training camp; the nature and frequency of the coronavirus tests they receive; and what happens if a player tests positive. In Harbaugh’s mind, the league needs to revisit everything to make such rules practical for the teams.
“I think good people, smart people are involved in this,” Harbaugh said.
“But the way I’m reading these memos right now, you throw your hands up and you go: ‘What the heck? There’s no way this can be right.’”