NFL anticipates Seahawks will have coaches in facility Friday. Team awaiting state OK
The NFL has sent word to all its teams; they can have coaches back working in their facilities.
But what about the Seahawks? They work in one of the most restricted counties in the nation, mostly shut down by local policies intended to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
An NFL source told The News Tribune the league anticipates Seattle being able to open its Virginia Mason Athletic Center along Lake Washington in Renton to coach Pete Carroll and his staff on Friday. That’s per the NFL’s memorandum to teams Thursday.
But the Seahawks had not as of late Thursday morning heard from the state of Washington nor King County on whether the team would get a go-ahead from those authorities to reopen the Seahawks’ headquarters to coaches.
Coaches and players have been away from closed NFL team facilities since mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
King County is one of the last in Washington still in what the state calls phase one of a four-phase return to normal business and life from COVID-19. On Thursday, the county announced it had submitted to state authorities a request for “to allow for limited openings of businesses in a modified Phase 1 of the Safe Start plan, including allowing some indoor seating at restaurants.”
Last week state officials said it could take multiple days for a county such as King to get approval for a request to move into what some are calling “phase 1.5.”
The NFL appears to be assuming the state will grant King County approval for limited opening of businesses in time for the Seahawks to have their coaches working in their facility beginning Friday.
Players will remain away, for now. They are at their offseason homes, meeting remotely with their coaches on daily Zoom calls as part of offseason training. There are no indications a move to “phase 1.5,” or eventually phase 2, in King County will permit the 90 players on Seattle’s offseason roster to return to work inside its team headquarters anytime soon.
The Seahawks list 29 coaches on Carroll’s staff. The NFL’s memo Thursday increased the number of personnel permitted to be in team facilities at any time from 75 to 100.
Normally in June, teams would be finishing weeks of organized team activities (OTA) practices on the field at team headquarters, with a veteran-player minicamp upcoming. Those have all been canceled this spring.
The first time players return to the field for practice may be the start of training camp. That is supposed to be July 29 for the Seahawks in Renton.
The NFL told all teams this week they must have training camps at home in their team facilities this summer, to limit travel and logistical concerns amid the pandemic. Most like Seattle now do that, anyway. A handful of teams, such as the Steelers, Packers and Cowboys, go away to college campuses or other sites.
Carroll has said he is like everyone else in the NFL: waiting to see what course the pandemic and the return to semi-normal form it takes.
“Nobody knows what’s going to happen, really. So we’ll just wait and see,” Carroll said five weeks ago.
They are still in wait-and-see mode.
The Seahawks coach has said players need at least five or six weeks of training to be able to begin a season of games safely. Those are scheduled to start Sept. 10.
“I’m hoping it’s not going to be let’s get two weeks of work and then, ‘Let’s start playing NFL games,’” Carroll said. “I hope it’s not like that because that’s going to be really challenging on their bodies, and it will be almost impossible to figure that you could do it.”
This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 10:56 AM.
