It’s doubtful NFL can pull off an uninterrupted ’20
For decades, we knew what we were going to see and hear from NFL training camps.
Great to be back, the players would say as they checked in to their hotel or dormitories.
Guys are in great shape, coaches would say after the conditioning test on the first day.
And the old stand-by, can’t wait to hit someone wearing a different uniform.
But just in from the news desk is this: 2020 is different.
There will be less time to prepare. Less hitting. And the most important tests given will be for COVID-19, not knowledge of the playbook.
The Cardinals veterans, for instance, started to report on Tuesday, but they will be able to take the field only after several days of testing. The first practices will be at the team’s Tempe headquarters, and the entire team isn’t scheduled to practice at State Farm Stadium until Aug. 9.
During a video call on Tuesday, Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury praised the NFL and the players union for trying to “come up with what they feel are answers to almost any scenario that could come up. That being said, no one has ever been here before.”
“Here” is playing football during a pandemic caused by a virus that is spread mainly person-to-person,
when people are in close contact with one another, according to the CDC.
That’s problematic in a sport in which knocking the literal snot and spit out of each other are goals.
It’s a sport in which each teams are likely to open camp with 80 players, who spend most of the day together, including two hours or so on the field invading each other’s space.
The NFL is determined to not only make this season work, but also to start it on time, paying no heed to my recent suggestion that the season should be delayed a month.
My feelings are not hurt. I’m married with children and accustomed to being ignored.
I doubt the NFL call pull this off without some type of pause, whether it be a delayed start or a suspension of the schedule during the season. There are just too many people involved, and the virus is spreading too quickly in too many areas of the country that are homes to NFL teams.
The NFL knows players will have positive tests. The question will be if they can limit the number and continue to play games.
As Kingsbury noted, the goal of the protocols is not to have “zero positives. It’s meant to limit the positives you have, and when you do recognize them, to handle that situation as quickly as you can.”
If the season is going to happen, it’s going to take wisdom on behalf of players, coaches and everyone else employed by teams or leagues.
MLB and the NBA already have shown us such wisdom is not a given, even when the stakes are this high.
Clippers guard Lou Williams broke NBA protocol when he decided he needed an order of chicken wings, or something else off the menu of a strip club, while in Atlanta for a funeral.
And highlights of baseball games have featured scenes of crowded dugouts and high fives being exchanged. Baseball hasn’t been playing a week and already the schedules of some teams have been paused or altered.
“If you’re not learning from these other sports leagues, then you’re missing out,” Kingsbury said.
The NFL’s safety protocols for COVID-19 is hundreds of pages long and includes daily testing the first two weeks of training camp and the wearing of tracking devices that monitor proximity between people.
Some meetings of positions groups will still be via video conferencing, Kingsbury said, and he’s mulling the idea of keeping his quarterbacks apart as much as possible to decrease the odds of them being infected at the same time.
And players and coaches will continue to be lectured about taking precautions at home, not just at work.
But even if players and others in the league do everything right — wear masks, stay home as much as possible, social distance, etc. — an outbreak seems inevitable.
A family member of Rams tackle Andrew Whitworth had lunch outside with one other person, and nine people, including Whitworth, ended up infected. His father-in-law spent time in the hospital.
As Browns center and NFL Players Association President JC Tretter noted in a recent conference call, an offensive lineman with COVID would come in contact with between 30 and 40 people at a single practice.
Some players have decided it’s not worth it. They have until Aug. 3 to opt out and by late Tuesday afternoon, 25 league wide had done so, according to various reports.
No Cardinals have as of yet, but as Kingsbury said, that is subject to change.
Everything in 2020 has been subject to change, including the NFL’s plans and protocols.
I wish the league well. I grew up playing football. I’m a fan. And a lot of livelihoods, including that of a sportswriter, are more lively when sports are being played.
But let’s make sure they can be played safety. I have my doubts that football can be in the fall of 2020. I hope I’m wrong.