NFL, union considering cutting preseason games in return from COVID-19
It unfortunately took a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, but...
Hallelujah! Finally, a real possibility of fewer fake games for which the NFL charges fans real-game prices.
The league and its players’ union are discussing canceling two of each team’s four scheduled preseason games this summer. Shortening the exhibition schedule would allow more time for players to acclimate in training after the coronavirus pandemic canceled their offseason practices.
The consideration of fewer preseason games is according to Tom Pelissero of the league-owned NFL Network Wednesday.
“Nothing finalized or imminent, but multiple team executives informed of talks currently believe they could end up playing two preseason games, rather than four,” Pelissero reported.
The Seahawks are scheduled to begin training camp July 28 at their currently closed team facility in Renton.
Their preseason games are for now scheduled to be at home against the Las Vegas Raiders Aug. 13, Aug. 22 at the Houston Texans, Aug. 27 at home against the Los Angeles Chargers and Sept. 3 at the Minnesota Vikings.
NFL teams play two preseason games at home and two away. They include those two home games as part of their season-ticket packages, making them full-price games for season-ticket holders. Yet starters barely play in all but one of the four exhibition games. The third one is typically Seattle’s and most teams’ “dress rehearsal” for the regular season, with starters often playing into the third quarters.
Otherwise, preseason games are mainly a chance for the final 10 or so players to make the 53-man roster for the real season. Teams typically take off the day before then up to two days after each preseason game from fully practicing.
The NFL’s new collective bargaining agreement with its players calls for training camps to begin no earlier than 47 days prior to the first regular-season game. Seattle’s opener is scheduled for Sept. 13 at Atlanta.
But the league is considering having 2020 training camps open in mid-July, if local public-health authorities allow that for each of the 32 teams. The NFL Players Association would have to sign off on that change to the CBA.
Even if players don’t agree to report to training camp two weeks early, in mid-July, teams could still use the extra training time and practices created by canceling two of the preseason games to refine their week-to-week testing protocols. The NFL will be doing those among other unprecedented measures to have a season in 2020 during a pandemic.
Seattle coach Pete Carroll has been concerned about players having enough time to get ready to safely play this regular season because of the COVID-19 virus. Carroll is worried players not having practices on the field together in organized team activities (OTAs) and minicamps at team facilities in May and June will put them behind physically where they would be in a normal year for the start of training camp.
“There’s a lot of this that’s going to be unique, and we don’t know what the runway time is going to be once we get them,” Carroll said in April. “We won’t know how much time we will have to prepare them.
“There’s a lot on the players right now and a lot on them to hold their end of it. We are monitoring them, but it’s a challenge and there will be issues because of that.”
Asked how much time he needs to have players properly trained and ready to start the season, Carroll said: “That’s a really good question, because that’s going to be a very big issue.
“I know that our guys need six weeks of work to get rolling, and that’s what the league has always allowed us,” Carroll said. “A couple weeks, then four (preseason) games—it takes a full five, six weeks in camp. ...
“And that’s coming off weeks and weeks of an entire offseason.
“Without an intense offseason, with competition and guys working against each other and all of that, I don’t know. We’re going to have to just figure it out. We won’t know until after we see the results of what happens.”
Carroll calls it “this most rigorous of events, going through a football season.”
And he doesn’t want the league shorting its players that time.
“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.”
Last week the NFL gave the go-ahead for coaches to return to team facilities for the first time since the coronavirus closed those buildings and league travel in mid-March. And Gov. Jay Inslee declared Washington’s pro sports teams could practice and play games in stadiums and arenas with no fans, regardless of the phase of return their county was in.
But the NFL has yet to permit players into team facilities. That’s unlikely to happen until the start of training camp.
The Seahawks, as of Monday, were still awaiting word from King County that they were OK to have their coaches in their Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton. King County is in a modified phase 1 of Washington’s four-phase Safe Start plan to reopen. It remains one of the nation’s more restricted counties.
This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 10:46 AM.
