The NFL Apparently Has No Plans In Place To Try To Play Football During Coronavirus Pandemic
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The NFL wants to hold a season. Billions of dollars are at stake. NFL players also want to have a season, as they only have so many years in their short careers to earn their millions.
But wanting to do something and figuring out how to do something are two very different things. And it does not appear as though the league has done much in the way of planning and implementing plans to make their wish come true.
Texans superstar J.J. Watt popped on to Twitter on Thursday to share the "updates," such as they are, which the NFL has given to players over the past two weeks. The brief recap is not particularly encouraging, considering facilities are supposed to open to rookies this week in some places.
Watt said that among the many things that players have not been told are:
--Whether teams or the league have Infectious Disease Emergency Response plans.
--How often players will be testing.
--How a positive COVID-19 test would impact contracts and roster spots.
--How training camp can be held within the COVID-19 protocols sent to teams in recent weeks.
--Whether there will be a preseason.
That is ... quite a bit of unknown. And it's quite a long way off from having "almost everything done" a week ago.
Can the NFL figure it out? The odds may be stacked against them. And the clock is ticking.
With training camps set to open in less than two weeks, it may be time for the NFL to start providing more answers than questions.
