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The sports world will rejoice Thursday night as the NFL returns. True to the league’s intentions during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 season will kickoff on time. The NFL has not had to endure any delays as have all of the other major professional sports.
Fans and media will also be waiting for the other cleat to drop Friday morning. The NFL has done a fabulous job of forming 32 bubbles to keep COVID-19 out, but the Texans clashing with the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night presents an opportunity for transmissibility.
What will happen next?
According to Texans coach and general manager Bill O’Brien, the NFL has produced copious protocols to create a bubble around the visiting team as it travels to another team’s bubble.
“It’s got to be 40 pages worth of protocols on traveling,” said O’Brien. “Basically what the NFL up to this point has done, and all the teams have done, is you’ve created a bubble within your own facility as long as your players, which our players have done a great job, and your staff, staff has done a great job of just going from your stadium or where your facility is to home. You’ve created that bubble. Now with the travel protocols, you’re creating another bubble basically relative to your facility, the busses, the planes and then the hotel and then the stadium with which you play.”
Texans cornerback Bradley Roby is too focused on the Chiefs’ dangerous passing attack led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes and featuring receiver Tyreek Hill to even have anxiety over the novel coronavirus.
“I don’t think that much of it,” Roby said. “We’re going to get ready. Thankfully, we’re going to play with some people in the stands. I think that’s going to be a little better than having that first game and just having no one out there. I think it’ll kind of let us transition into having no fans at other places, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Staying at a hotel is one of the aspects of road games that could compromise the traveling bubble. Some players have preferred to go out the night before away games. However, for older veterans who have seen it all, such as tight end Darren Fells, going straight to the hotel from the airport and calling it a night is nothing new.
“That’s normal for me,” Fells said. “The biggest thing is really just having to go to another team’s facilities and play against them not knowing how they’ve been keeping the virus out of their building and what their protocols are. That’s the only thing that really worries me but I’m more focused on getting the W as of right now when it comes to football.”
Houston is intent on getting the W to start the season on the right track during a three-week murder’s row that features the Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, and Pittsburgh Steelers. However, no matter the score, if they can come away from Kansas City with no positive COVID tests, it will be a win for the entire league.
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