Get ready. That hasn’t happened yet, however something will happen to crystallize the NFL’s challenge of hosting a full season in the context of a pandemic.
Perhaps the great wonder is the situation of the case in the league. After leaving the preseason, the NFL needs to bring him the typical 256 regular season games and an extended playoff crusade culminating in boffo odds for Super Bowl LV in Tampa on February 7, 2021.
This is the plan. This is hope.
However, we may be on the cusp of a season of epidemics, outages, and contingency planning. Or in the middle.
The fact is, with COVID-19 as factor X, no one knows for sure how it will develop.
One thing’s for sure: One year after celebrating the NFL’s 100th season in style, the recall is destined to be significant on an entirely different scale.
As NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell put it, “It will be an unprecedented historic season like no other.
Most of them are empty stadiums. Daily tests. Socially remote meetings. Focus on lectures. Opt out. Officials in masks. False noise. Protocols galore.
This is your 2020 edition of the most popular (and successful) sports league in the country, designed for survival.
Can the NFL do it?
So far so good. Look at the statistics.
On Tuesday, the NFL announced its COVID-19 screening results no-show circular, which covers the seven-day window of August 30-September 30. 5. Of the 17,519 tests of 2,641 players, there is only one new positive result.
Think about the odds: 1 in 17,500. It’s like Super Lotto stuff.
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The new findings continue the trend that has existed all summer, as NFL groups have walked away from the shoots with poise. There were only 4 positive instances of players from Aug 21-29 and 0 from Aug 12-20. When the groups opened educational camps in late July, there were 53 positive instances across the league among 2,840 players. And now the season is scheduled to open Thursday night with near-perfect verification results.
The perspective was to have verification, which included the effectiveness and reliability of the quick effects. Now it’s about maintaining momentum through trends with control effects, while the league can hold its breath as those patterns continue as team travel comes into the equation.
Remember when the wonderful concern was the idea of players sweating in the trenches of a touch sport? Well, the NFL has shown so far (as has the NBA in its bubble, too) that touch and sweat can be a good fit if all participants are clean.
“Because of all the uncertainty of the season, I wasn’t sure if we were going to have a season,” Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb said in a recent Zoom session. “I didn’t know how things were going to turn out. I think for us to come here and exercise every day, (with) few instances in our paddle at the moment and keep betting on football… it’s a plus.
Goodell knows it. Now is the time for a victory lap. It’s September, February.
“I think the ultimate for us is not feeling comfortable,” Goodell said on a recent conference call. “The protocols are working. But we have a lot of uncertainty here. This is a pandemic that we are still learning about. “
When the season kicks off Thursday night with the protection of Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Houston Texans, it’s just NFL luck that Arrowhead Stadium is one of the few venues in the NFL to host the Houston Texans. fanatics. in week 1, albeit with only 22% of the same previous capacity. Often described over the years as a “televised sport,” the NFL will indeed live up to that moniker, as most stadiums in Week 1, and perhaps much of the season, will be empty.
It’s also one of the harsh realities the league has had to come to terms with as it contemplates multi-month plans to safely return its product. The last thing the NFL wants is for its stadiums to become super streaming hotspots, feature decisions like the government’s mandate that fans won’t be able to access MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, all season long. , they are largely out of league hands.
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By proceeding with what the league can control, Goodell and NFL officials, in sync with (and in some cases driven by) the NFL Players Association, have likely stayed one step ahead with protocols and the politics. Longer than other leagues to plan, as the pandemic began to ravage the country during the offseason. Still, in hindsight, decisions to shut down the team’s headquarters for months, hold a virtual draft, and cancel the preseason laid the foundation for that luck of a season.
And last week, the league and players union agreement to conduct more important tests, allowing for a faster reaction to positive cases and helping to combat the possibility of false positives, arguably turns out just as important. for the big picture.
But still, in terms of football, the NFL season concluded with pregame warm-ups.
In addition to its management, the league is not immune to the threats that come with hot spots and epidemics, which is why educational groups have been expanded (to 16) and injured reserve regulations have been liberalized. and changes designed to accommodate asymmetric schedules and postponement scenarios. Nothing can be taken for granted. Especially now.
As groups move from educational camp to normal season mode, threats appear to become more pronounced as players will be less contained in the camp surroundings with more opportunities to socialize. In addition, there is the threat of spread by close contact with a circle of family, friends or business associates.
“When they’re in this building, you don’t care about them,” Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert told USA TODAY Sports, echoing a theme the league heard. “When they leave this building, what they have to do, you worry about them. If they need to contract the virus, they are most likely away from the locals. “
Unlike the NBA and NHL, the NFL does not function in a bubble, although New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton envisions playoff groups through the bubble technique hired through the Dallas educational camp. Saints and the Cowboys.
Instead, one of the biggest considerations for coaches is an epidemic within a team. Even with strict league protocols, medical experts caution that even the most reliable tests cannot guarantee one hundred percent accuracy.
The concern the league encountered in mid-August, when more than 70 tests were (quickly) determined to be “false positives” due to an obvious flaw in a testing lab, illustrated the kind of chaos that can ensue. caused when various groups replaced education schedules and were affected. the players stayed away from the field.
What if this happened in the last review before adjustment day? If there can be “false positives”, what about “false negatives”?
Of course, valid positives are the biggest threat. This is why non-public tasks and equipment problems are as vital as any rule at the beginning of the manual.
JC Tretter, Intermediate for the Cleveland Browns and president of the NFL Players Association, made this transparent in his “President’s Corner” post on the union’s website.
Tretter wrote: “The pandemic has created a scenario in which the movements of one user can affect the health and livelihoods of thousands of people. “
Or even a league.
If the NFL is successful, salute the collaborative effort. Don’t breathe out until Super Bowl LV is on the books.
“It seems like years from now,” said Allen Sills, the NFL’s leading medical adviser.
No, at the moment, one at a time is more than an appropriate mantra for the NFL.
Follow Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell.
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