The NFL has been planning for this moment for six months. Six months to prepare for what would happen when the league started seeing a significant number of positive COVID-19 tests. It started early in the week ago when an outbreak on the Tennessee Titans forced their game with the Pittsburgh Steelers to be moved to the middle of the season.
Now with a positive test for New England Patriots starting quarterback and their game with the Kansas City Chiefs (who also have a positive test) is going to be pushed to Monday or Tuesday.
Somewhere at NFL headquarters, there are scheduling gurus and logistical experts sitting in a room not only trying to sort this all out.
Let me save you all a little work and tell you the only way this can be fixed without just slapping bandaids on the problem a week at a time.
You shut down the league for two weeks. At that point you rip up the schedule and build in three by weeks when the entire NFL is off. These will be the weeks to play games missed due to COVID-19 positive tests.
This means you push the end of the season five or six weeks. But in the big picture this is nothing. The Super Bowl happens in March and they get through the season. If this is too long, shorten the season to 12 games under the same concept and play the Super Bowl on time. Every city could create a team bubble at a hotel in the city and keep the players and staff isolated.
Considering more stadiums don’t allow fans, the logistics of this are incredibly simple to sort out. Taking it week by week isn’t going to work and could honestly end up pushing the end of the season back even further.
But I want to pass the question off to you. How should the NFL proceed with the season in light of these COVID outbreaks? Let us know.
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