At the time of this writing, NFL teams are 25 days away from reporting to training camp. The chances of a 2020 season actually happening, though, have never felt so shaky.
Given the longest head-start of any major sports league on how to proceed in the midst of a pandemic, the NFL has wasted most of that time cruising full speed ahead as if everything will be just fine. But with the nation’s coronavirus numbers constantly changing- and not for the better- the league suddenly finds itself nearing an event horizon, with more questions now than ever.
Adam Schefter reports teams are likely looking at starting camp this preseason with fewer than the usual 90 players. According to the NFL insider:
“One source said he believed it’s likely that teams will go to camp with 80-man rosters, and another source said it’s ‘definitely not 90.’ A third league source said he has ‘heard lots of discussion about 75 players potentially instead of 90,’ especially with the reduction in preseason games and teams not needing as many players for camp as normal.”
Another possible change? Larger practice squads. Those units are already set to grow from 10 to 12 this year thanks to the new collective bargaining agreement, but Schefter notes that the league is considering further expansion “to 16-20 players” to provide teams a larger pool of players to draw from should a Covid outbreak occur.
Team player representatives and the NFLPA’s medial director took part in a conference call Thursday regarding the virus.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano reports:
“One source told ESPN that players on the call were told that they could be fined for conduct detrimental if they are found to have engaged in “reckless” behavior away from the team facility, such as eating out in restaurants and using ride-sharing services.
New protective equipment- including gameday alterations to players’ on-the-field gear- was also discussed as a possibility.
Graziano goes on:
“Sources told ESPN there was plenty of pushback on Thursday’s call from players asking why they are trying to rush back to play if the virus is such a dangerous threat. Players also have been asking what happens to their contracts if they opt not to play for virus-related reasons (as some NBA players already have), what happens if they grow too uncomfortable to play as the season goes on and what happens to next year’s salary cap as a result of lost revenue this year.”
Even the buildings that NFL teams will be entering pose a legitimate risk. The league has already instructed teams to devise protocols for how team employees will move about their facilities. But SoFi Stadium, the new Los Angeles home of the Chargers and Rams that’s now nearly complete, revealed just Thursday that seven more workers at the stadium- from three different trades- have tested positive for Covid-19. Twenty-five stadium workers have now tested positive since the pandemic began.
The Cowboys were scheduled to open SoFi as the visiting team for its first game, Week 1 of the preseason against the Rams. The NFL had already nixed Weeks 1 and 4 of the preseason before the latest positive cases at the facility.
As stadiums reopen for business, recommendations from an internal group headed by a league executive “will likely include having stadiums stop accepting cash, concessions only offering prepackaged food, and for all fans to wear masks.” Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic reports that the NFL may even ask fans to sign liability waivers before attending games.
Amidst talk of shrinking training camp numbers and beefing up practice squads for the Cowboys and the 31 other teams, there’s also now talk of splitting rosters. The idea is for each club to keep two fully-functioning skeleton crews practicing in isolation. Like the president and vice-president not traveling on the same plane, if something happens to the A-team, the B-team can still take the field.
ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio argues:
“Whether the squads practice in different shifts (following a thorough cleaning of the primary practice facility for camp) or whether part of the team works at the practice facility and the rest practices at the stadium, there’s real value in keeping the team separated.
“Obviously, fewer players in any given space will make it easier to comply with guidelines aimed at limiting the spread of the virus. More importantly, if an outbreak commences, the other half of the team will (in theory) be insulated.”
The sporting world is already getting a look at what happens when players and team personnel start testing positive. Major League Soccer, using Orlando as a “bubble city” to resume its season in just a matter of days, is dealing with an eleventh-hour outbreak on its Dallas team.
The team members reportedly tested negative for the virus before leaving Dallas but tested positive once inside the bubble. Texas is currently experiencing one of the highest Covid spikes in the country; Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott has already tested positive for the virus, as have other players among the Cowboys and Texans organizations.
Everything is changing daily for all Americans. Best-laid plans are falling by the wayside with every news report. A second wave of closings is spreading. Every question about how an NFL season might look or could work in the current climate just leads to more questions. And the answers to those questions aren’t set in stone. They’re not written in ink. Heck, by the time they’re scrawled on a dry-erase board, things have probably changed. And things will undoubtedly change again- multiple times- before July 28.
To that end in this rapidly-evolving environment, Florio warns that the CBA agreed upon in the pre-Covid era just a few months ago is in desperate need of an express-lane update to get the league and its players through a season like no other.
“They need to reach, essentially, a new labor agreement that covers one season of football,” Florio writes. “What the league thinks advances the safety interests of the players may be different from what the players believe. That’s where problems can arise, and problems that can’t be worked out could delay the start of training camp and, potentially, the start of the season.”
Florio even brings up the possibility of a “non-traditional work stoppage” that could result from the league and team owners plowing forward with football, putting players in jeopardy during an unprecedented global health crisis.
A work stoppage in the current landscape would be disastrous. But right now, a work startage looks like it could be, too.
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