Report: NFL considered cancellations

With a surge of COVID-19 cases threatening to disrupt the NFL season last week, the league discussed canceling games for the first time since the pandemic began.

In talks with the NFL Players Association, canceling games involving Washington, the Browns and the Rams was considered because of coronavirus outbreaks on each team. Instead, the games were moved from the weekend to Monday and Tuesday.

NFLPA President JC Tretter, a center for the Browns, said the league wanted to cancel those games — players wouldn’t have been paid in that scenario, according to the league’s COVID-19 protocols agreement with the union last season. But two player reps told The AP canceling the games was never the No. 1 plan.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told the AP on Wednesday: “Our goal has been to play the season as scheduled in a safe, responsible way.”

Tretter stressed the union’s opposition to any cancellations.

“So, the NFL’s position was that those games were going to be canceled,” Tretter said Wednesday. “They weren’t going to be played, and if they weren’t played then nobody on either team was going to be paid. That’s obviously an issue for us as a union.”

Tretter said the union’s executive committee voted unanimously “that our position needed to be that games need to be rescheduled and not canceled and we pushed the league to that resolution.”

Colleges: The ACC is changing its rescheduling policy to avoid assigning forfeits for teams unable to play due to COVID-19 protocols. The decision comes amid the rise in COVID cases and the increase in cancellations and postponements of basketball games nationally. Games that can’t be played will be rescheduled if possible. If those games can’t be rescheduled, they will be considered a no-contest that doesn’t affect a team’s record. The change is retroactive to the beginning of the winter sports schedule, meaning it will remove recent forfeits. The Big 12 recently adjusted its policy as well, while other conferences reportedly are considering changes.

NBA: Mavericks All-Star G Luka Doncic entered the league’s health and safety protocols, adding his name to the list of top players who might be sidelined for games on Christmas because of coronavirus-related concerns. That news came not long after the NBA called off the next game for both the Raptors and the Nets due to COVID issues. Neither team had the minimum eight players necessary to start a contest . ... The COVID-depleted Celtics signed 40-year-old swingman Joe Johnson to a 10-day contract. Johnson started his NBA career with the Celtics when he was drafted 10th overall in 2001. The seventime All-Star played 1,276 regular-season games with seven teams through the 201718 season, averaging 16.0 points.

NHL: The Flames pulled out of a deal with the city of Calgary for a new arena because of increased costs. The city and the Flames agreed on an arena deal over two years ago with the initial estimate of $550 million split between the two. The estimate has risen to $634 million according to the Flames, with the team paying for more of it than the city and taking on the risk of rising costs in the future.