Teams around the NFL had to figure that things were going to be disrupted, they just weren’t sure how. On Wednesday, the league announced their first cuts to the slate of games, targeting the exhibition schedule in an effort to reduce exposure and buy more time during the global pandemic.
The coronavirus has already impacted the Dallas Cowboys schedule, with Ohio cancelling the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, OH that would’ve kicked off the preseason. Now, the league has shrunk the four-week exhibition schedule to just two games.
Week One and Week Four will be the preseason weeks that are scrapped, per source.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) July 1, 2020
For the Cowboys, that means that the opening of the new SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles against the Chargers is out, as well as the normally annual Governor’s Cup matchup against the Houston Texans.
Remaining, the Baltimore Ravens and Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs. Both of those games were set to be home games, but the league appears to be trying to reconcile the split, making sure teams can appear in front of their fans. That is, if there will be fans. According to Pro Football Talk, the league will make sure each team gets one home and one away game.
There has been a want to reduce the exhibition schedule from four to two games for a while now, and it appears the pandemic has afforded the NFL the opportunity.
Major League Baseball is using their shortened season as cover to implement many of their various rule changes that had been bandied about for years. The National League will now have a DH and the league is going to place a runner on second base each half inning if the game goes beyond nine frames. The NFL has long considered shrinking the preseason in order to get more regular season games on the table, so it would not be surprising if this temporary move becomes permanent.
What other changes could be on the way remains to be seen.