Fans have been waiting months for their first glimpse of the 2020 Dallas Cowboys, but as 2020 has shown us, the world does not revolve around sports. The global pandemic shut down sports for months, cancelled the NFL’s offseason program and wiped out the entire exhibition season. Somehow, though, the league was able to make it to opening week and kicked things off with the Kansas City Chiefs defending their title for the first time on Thursday night.
Now, a very specific threat to the lives and safety of those in the state of California threatens the premiere Sunday game, as the Cowboys are scheduled to christen the Los Angeles Rams’ new multibillion building, SoFi Stadium. The wild fires that have ravaged the state and caused air quality issues could impact the season opener for both teams.
The NFL prohibits teams from playing or practicing if the air quality index shows sustained levels above 200.
At their training facility in Thousand Oaks, the Rams practiced all week, and coach Sean McVay said Friday, “That shouldn’t be an issue for us (Sunday).”
But Rams COO Kevin Demoff said Friday and Saturday morning that he is in touch with the NFL and local officials about the smoky air.
Demoff said that if the Rams-Cowboys game couldn’t be played as scheduled at 5:20 p.m. Sunday, postponing it to Monday or Tuesday would be a better option than moving it to another location. That would be the NFL’s call.
Today at 10am Pacific Time, according to Weather Underground, the Air Quality Index for Inglewood, CA is at 171.
Air quality levels fluctate throughout the day and tend to improve at night, so what things will be like at 5:20 p.m. local time for kickoff could be in a better situation; though pre-game activities will be taken into consideration.
There will be no fans in the stands of the new 70,000 seat arena, but air quality is a danger when exerting oneself, which means there could be an issue even for the finely tuned professional athletes.
The Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers have an afternoon game that could be in peril, too.
Whether or not the games would be relocated or postponed is a discussion the league office and teams must be discussing.
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