The NFL recently released its schedule for the 2020 season. All 256 games have been laid out. But, because of COVID-19, the season is still in question. Here’s what we know so far.
The league has announced that teams can engage in virtual workouts. For teams with new coaching staffs, those programs began on April 20th. For everyone else, they opened on April 27th, and end on May 15th. Teams could send players up to $1500 worth of equipment for their personal workouts.
The next round of workouts begin on May 18th, and run through June 26th, whether virtually, or on-field. For now, no team can open their facilities, up until the point that every team can do so.
A lot of work went into the making of the schedule. With the idea that games may be canceled, it was created with maximum flexibility. For example, each team shares their bye-week with their Week 2 opponent. In case one of the first 2 games must be canceled, they can be played during the bye.
In the first four weeks, each team has two home, and two away games. This allows for the games to be moved to the other locations with minimal logistical issues, either with scheduling, or broadcasting. No divisional games are scheduled for Weeks 3 and 4, so they can also be eliminated with no repercussions, to create a 14-game season.
It’s also highly likely that at least part of the season could be played either in front of partial crowds, or empty stadiums. The NFL is set up financially so that while there will be a loss, not all is gone if fans cannot attend games.
If or when the league begins, the most important new wrinkle will be testing for the coronavirus. If a player, or players, test positive for the virus, they could be ineligible to play. With the possibility of quarantine after a positive test. No guidelines have been set as of yet.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Fauci, had this to say in an interview with NBC’s Peter King:
“You got a problem there. You know why? Because it is likely that if four of them are positive and they’ve been hanging around together, that the other ones that are negative are really positive. So I mean, if you have one outlier [only one player testing positive], I think you might get away. But once you wind up having a situation where it looks like it’s spread within a team, you got a real problem. You gotta shut it down.”
It’s yet to be seen if any of that will be necessary. Many cities are starting to implement the reopening procedures, in hopes of moving past the bad times. For the NFL, they’re proceeding as usual. Well, at least virtually.
