Report: NFL Coaches, Executives Believe Coronavirus Will Make Starting Season On Time 'Nearly Impossible'
BOSTON (CBS) -- The coronavirus pandemic has thus far impacted nearly every single corner of every single industry in America. And it may be just beginning.
Despite the national concern, the NFL has carried on for the most part as if nothing is happening. Free agency kicked off last week as scheduled, the league still plans to hold the draft in late April, and the NFL as an organization remains "optimistic" that the 2020 season will go on either in its entirety or close to it.
On the ground level though, many in the NFL remain more realistic.
Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman, who owns a thick Rolodex full of NFL contacts, shared a series of tweets on Wednesday morning that cast serious doubts on the 2020 NFL season going off as planned.
The first tweet was the whopper:
Freeman explained that, rather than relying on the league office for information on the pandemic, coaches and executives are hearing from team doctors, who are much more informed on the matter.
Freeman added that there seems to be a disconnect, with the league wanting business to operate as normally as possible while the GMs and executives don't feel that such a course is really possible.
Freeman concluded that at this point, nothing's been determined, but the feeling is not particularly positive.
Of course, with America still very much in the early stages of dealing with the virus, nothing is set in stone -- because nothing can be set in stone. But Freeman's conversations with numerous people around the NFL indicate that the people in charge of making the league function do not currently feel as though it will be possible for the league to carry on as if a national crisis is not taking place.
