Induction ceremony pushed to ’21
League also cancels Hall of Fame game in August
The NFL is canceling the Hall of Fame Game scheduled for early August, making its first adjustment to its 2020 schedule due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to multiple people familiar with the league’s planning.
The cancellation is expected to be announced Thursday by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, according to one of those people.
The move comes as owners of the 32 NFL teams prepare to speak by video conference Thursday afternoon about planning for the season. The league could shorten the preseason from four games per team (or five in the case of the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers, the scheduled participants in the Hall of Fame Game) to two per team, although it’s not known when that decision will be made.
The Cowboys-Steelers game had been scheduled for Aug. 6 in Canton, Ohio. The Hall of Fame Game serves as the annual lid-lifter to the NFL’s preseason schedule. The Aug. 8 enshrinement ceremony for the newest members of the Hall of Fame is expected to be postponed, according to ESPN, which first reported the cancellation of the game.
Most NFL teams are scheduled to report to their training camps July 28. The reduction of the preseason to two games per team would allow players to be eased into full-speed on-field activities at a slower-than-usual pace before preseason games begin. That potentially could reduce injuries following an offseason that included no on-field practices by teams, as their offseason programs for players were conducted remotely. Those offseason programs officially end Friday.
The league also has considered an earlier opening to training camps, a person familiar with the deliberations said previously, to allow for that slower ramping-up of on-field activities. But the NFL Players Association would have to approve an earlier start to training camps and it appears increasingly unlikely that will happen.
The NFL’s regular season is scheduled to begin Sept. 10. League officials repeatedly have said they hope to play a full and on-time season, with teams playing in their own stadiums in their home cities. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, said last week he remains hopeful that the league will be able to start the season on time and play it to its completion, utilizing health and safety protocols being developed in cooperation with the NFLPA.
“I am optimistic,” Sills said in a phone interview. “I think that we’ve got a tremendous amount of effort that’s gone into these protocols and the creative work from the different stakeholders. Yes, I am optimistic. But I think that we all have to be realistic as well to say that none of us can predict the future. I think there’s also a sense of timing here . . .. I just think that we’re going to see a whole lot of progress that’s made, and that’s going to continue to work to our benefit.”
Sills’s comments came after Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN that “football may not happen this year” unless players are placed in a “bubble” environment, isolated from others.