From the sounds of it, the next time we see a real Buffalo Bills football game, it’s going to be for all the marbles.
According to multiple reports on Monday, the NFL owners made an offer to players: No preseason games this coming August. The league already cut the exhibition slate from four to two games, and evidently due to the continuation of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the United States, all four will be gone.
Currently the various reports on the subject are saying that the NFL offered the cancellation of the preseason to the NFLPA. While there’s no word that the players union has accepted this, prior reports have suggested the NFLPA wanted the entire preseason canceled, and it appears it got its wish:
NFL offered the NFLPA today to play zero preseason games this summer, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 20, 2020
The Bills were scheduled to start the upcoming preseason on Aug. 14 at the Ravens and round it out on Sept. 3 as the Lions were set to visit Orchard Park. In terms of the next scheduled Bills game if the preseason is gone, the Bills’ Week 1 contest is on Sept. 13 as the Jets are in town.
Earlier on Monday, the two sides also came to another important agreement: COVID-19 testing protocols. That plus the canceled preseason shows the two sides are really making progress. Things have yet to be completely settled, but NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo added some further context in terms of the two sides getting on the same page on other differences:
All this movement from the teams on the on-field stuff means there’s been lots of progress on the financials. Owners were willing to move on the preseason games if the players worked toward getting the money done. https://t.co/jR251yX2aL
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) July 20, 2020
Slow and steady, football might actually get the job done. But stay tuned to Bills Wire just to be sure as we’ll continue to bring the latest updates.
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