Amid coronavirus, NFL medical chief dials back idea league will begin season on time
The NFL is walking back the optimism it created that its season will begin on time amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Two days after the NFL vice president for general counsel said “our expectation is fully directed at playing a full season starting on schedule” in September, the league’s chief medical officer went Dr. Anthony Fauci on that.
Not so fast.
Dr. Allen Sills, leader of the NFL’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak that has shut down the country and sports games worldwide, told NFL.com Thursday: “As long as we’re still in a place where when a single individual tests positive for the virus that you have to quarantine every single person who was in contact with them in any shape, form or fashion, then I don’t think you can begin to think about reopening a team sport. Because we’re going to have positive cases for a very long time.”
Sills said of the league starting the season on time the weekend after Labor Day, as usual: “We are not at a point where we are saying that is absolutely not going to happen, so we should continue our planning and preparations as if we’re going to be able to do that. But, obviously, we’re going to have to evaluate that along the way. And follow what the recommendations are from public health officials and from our infectious disease experts and others.”
Tuesday, NFL vice president Jeff Pash told the league-owned NFL Network: “Our planning, our expectation, is fully directed at playing a full season starting on schedule and having a full regular season and a full set of playoffs. ...
“Am I certain? I’m not certain that I’ll be here tomorrow. But I’m planning on it.”
Pash went on to state the NFL’s plan remains for games to be played in teams’ home stadiums full of fans, as usual.
The league’s top medical officer tempering that Thursday, to another league-owned media outlet, came off as commissioner Roger Goodell’s way of presenting a more measured, responsible outlook amid the uncertainty, fear and death going on in the real world with no known end.
In New York, where the league’s headquarters are, the death toll from the coronavirus doubled Thursday in a 72-hour span to more than 1,900. The number of people worldwide diagnosed with COVID-19 passed 1 million.
Of Pash’s comments the league is planning to have a full season begin on time in front of stadiums packed with fans, Dr. Sills said: “I don’t think that I would interpret those comments to say that that is absolutely what’s going to happen.
“I would say that’s everyone’s hope, that we are in a position to do that,” Sills told NFL.com’s Judy Battista. “But the reality is none of us know those facts for certain right now. We hope and pray for the best and prepare for the worst, realizing that is one potential outcome that we will be back fully in business playing games as normal in front of fans on schedule. But it’s certainly not the only outcome. And I think what was implied there was to say we are not at a point where we are saying that is absolutely not going to happen so we should continue our planning and preparations as if we’re going to be able to do that. But obviously we’re going to have to evaluate that along the way. And follow what the recommendations are from public health officials and from our infectious disease experts and others.”
The league has closed each of its 32 team headquarters in response to the pandemic. That’s meant no offseason travel for free agent or draft prospects to NFL teams.
Sills said the availability of testing for COVID-19 and getting quick results will be the key determinant for when teams are permitted to return to their facilities for work. Adequate and abundant testing for the coronavirus has been an problem in the U.S. for months. Medical experts point to the lack of testing for all who need it as a main reason our country’s death toll has been rising while South Korea, which had its first confirmed case the same day the U.S. did in January, has a far lower per-capita death rate. One science publication has called the testing in America for the coronavirus “a fisaco.”
That doesn’t create confidence there will be testing adequate and effective enough to begin NFL team operations anytime soon.
Then there’s a competitive-balance issue. The league needs to wait until all states permit teams to return to work. The decisions to close non-essential business in the U.S. has been done on a state-by-state basis rather than national edict.
Compare where the Seahawks work and live compared to, say, the MInnesota Vikings. Washington state had the first confirmed case and death from COVID-19 in the country. Our state took social-distancing measures weeks before other states as an early epicenter for the coronavirus in the U.S.. Washington had 6,585 cases as of Thursday with 262 deaths. Minnesota had 742 cases with 18 deaths.
It stands to reason Washington will be under tighter lockdown restrictions for its citizens, businesses and public places for longer than Minnesota may be. On Thursday, Gov. Jay Inslee extended his stay-at-home order in Washington through at least May 4.
Sills agreed that the NFL will need to make competitive-balance decisions about allowing team facilities to re-open if there are more lockdown rules in place in some parts of the country than others.
The draft will go on as scheduled April 23-25, Goodell told teams in a memo last week. But it will be scaled down. The Las Vegas extravaganza with fans and with drafted players arriving to a stage on a boat amid the fountains in front of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino is canceled. Everything is going to done remotely, by telephone, email and video conferencing.
Organized team activities (OTAs) and minicamps that usually has players on the field practicing in May and June in a normal offseason are on hold. The league is considering having online workouts and classroom sessions for players in lieu of OTAs.
There is a chance, if not a likelihood, the first time players will be on the field from the end of last season will be the start of training camp. Usually that’s the last week of July.
This year, who knows when that will be?
Another issue: when players do return to work, should the NFL play games with 70,000 people packed into its stadiums when a vaccine for the coronavirus remains a distant hope?
Sills said it is too early to say how the league would handle that, or whether the league would play games in empty stadiums this fall.
“We will make those decisions in consultation with our experts at the time,” Sills said. “That decision will not be made in isolation. The NFL will not be charting a course different than other professional sports, other parts of society—college sports, universities, businesses.
“We can look at various models and prepare for different scenarios. We’re just going to need more time before we know what the right thing to do is.”
Sills said the league has no deadline for when a decision must be made whether to start the season on time. He did say offseason workouts being on hold and player not even being able to train in gyms, there will need to be considerable time for players to work back into shape to play games when and if they begin.
Indeed, nothing from the league’s top medical authority to suggest the season starting on time is a sure—or even likely—thing.
This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 8:56 AM.
