Day by day, the NFL looks to implement rules which they hope will limit the potential spread of the coronavirus. I mean, aside from cancelling the season, of course. That’s an extreme worst case scenario the NFL is not ready to discuss.
They have already cancelled half the preseason and now they’re working on specific measures for game days. ESPN’s Tom Pelissero passed along some of those measures which were sent to teams today.
The ban on postgame jersey exchanges was included in NFL-NFLPA game-day protocols that clubs received last night. Other notable changes for 2020:
– On-field fan seating is prohibited.
– Both teams must travel to the stadium via bus.
– Media will be banned from the locker room. https://t.co/WizWrySFvU
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 9, 2020
Most are wondering how much difference postgame interaction would matter between players who spent the entire game blocking, tackling, and tightly covering each other. Also how much difference it would make to swap jerseys. I suppose prohibiting any non-essential contact makes some sense. Likewise would be keeping the media out of the locker room.
There were previous reports that the plans for fans was to not have anyone on the sideline pregame and to even have the first few rows of seats tarped over with logos of the team sponsors. That would seem to include any stadiums which have seats on the field, so that rule makes sense.
When combined with the rule that most teams must arrive at the stadium by bus (usually the home team would have players arrive in their own vehicles) suggests the league is attempting to keep players in somewhat of a game day bubble. Now, how do they keep them safe the rest of the week?