Carroll: Seahawks must adapt, be ready for games in empty stadiums because of coronavirus
Pete Carroll says, yes, it’s possible for the Seahawks and the NFL to play this coming season in empty stadiums in front of no fans.
He said he’s played in such an odd setting before. In 1971 and ‘72, as a defensive back for the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif.
“I would say, back in my UoP days, we used to play in front of nobody, people do it. The game can still be played,” Carroll said, laughing from his suburban Seattle home on a Zoom call Tuesday previewing the Seahawks’ draft.
Seattle’s 68-year-old coach was adding levity to a situation he knows—and said—is as challenging as can be. Carroll believes games this fall in front of empty NFL stadiums because of the coronavirus pandemic is a distinct possibility, one for which the Seahawks will be ready.
“Whatever has to happen. Everybody needs to be wide open and ready to adapt, and all of that—in all aspects of life right now,” Carroll said of the NFL’s 2020 season. “And certainly, as we go approach the season, we are going to have to be prepared. There is still a great opportunity to show the game to our fans, you know, through the other media sources.
“But if that’s the way it is it will be a different experience. But it can happen. ...
“If we are playing and there are no fans, I promise you I will do everything I can to pipe in the sound, and make it sound as loud as possible, and all that...
“We just have to be ready to adapt. We just don’t know. Whatever it is, we will take it on. Just battle it and figure it out.”
NFL team facilities remain closed and all minicamps and offseason training on sites have been canceled. That’s because states have closed all but essential businesses across the country in efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. Leagues in professional and college sports around the country are waiting for states to re-open normal businesses before they can begin formulating plans for practices and perhaps games and seasons.
The league has said not one team facility will re-open until all 32 of them can be open, per each team’s state authorities.
Gov. Jay Inslee said this week “return to public life will occur in measured steps” in Washington. He called his return plan a dial turn rather than a flip of a switch. The plan does not indicate when Washington’s stay-at-home and partial business closures will end.
Seahawks general manager John Schneider said the NFL is trying to get through its unprecedented, all-remote draft Thursday-Saturday before teams and the league begin contemplating when it might be possible for training camps and what the 2020 season might look like. Training camps are scheduled to begin in late July.
“I think the primary focus is to get through this draft, and then to concentrate on what’s next, what the season would look like,” Schneider said.
Carroll said the team is operating on the assumption the season will begin as planned the weekend after Labor Day in early September. But, the coach added, “nobody really knows what’s going to happen.”
Carroll and Schneider were asked if the games without fans would be a particular disadvantage to the Seahawks. They enjoy one of the most raucous home-field advantages in the NFL at sold-out, shaking CenturyLink Field on Sundays in a normal football fall.
“We’d definitely miss our fans,” Schneider said, “no question.”
Carroll injected.
“Maybe everyone just watch the game (on TV) and yell out the window. That’d be pretty cool,” he said.
“That’d still be, relatively, pretty good.”
