The plan to start the 2020 NFL season: (Update - NFL and NFLPA agree on all issues)

[YoloinOhio]

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29440970/the-plan-start-2020-nfl-season-know-know

 

Quote

All of our discussions," Pash said, "all of our focus, has been on a normal, traditional season, starting on time, playing in front of fans, in our regular stadiums, and going through a full 16-game regular season and a full set of playoffs. That's our focus."

 

At the same time, Pash acknowledged the obvious. The date was March 31, which meant the NFL had months to figure out how to pull it off. But that time has dwindled. Rookies and selected veterans are scheduled to report to training camp on July 21, with full squads anticipated one week later.

 

Can the NFL pull off an on-time start to training camp, much less a season?
 

 Let's review what we know about the NFL's plans to return and recognize how much more must be decided in the coming weeks in order for Pash's goal to be realized. We'll return weekly to update you on the league's progress.

 

 

Quote

In the event of a positive test, the NFL has contracted with IQVIA -- a third-party firm that also analyzes league injury data -- for contact tracing to determine whom the person has been in close contact with during the incubation period. If there is a fear of in-game exposure, the NFL will make use of radio-frequency identification tracking devices embedded in each player's shoulder pads to determine whom that player was within 6 feet of during the game. Anyone who engages in team activities will be required to wear a Kinexon proximity recording tracking device, which would allow contact tracers to find the close contacts of someone who tested positive.

Edited July 24, 2020 by YoloinOhio

[TroutDog]

This, quite frankly, makes no sense to me. It’s football...many people are going to be in that proximity and teams will quickly be out of players should someone be positive. I’m also not sure the 6’ rule should apply outdoors. 

 

I really don’t see how this happens...particularly with fans. 

[LabattBlue]

So they haven’t figured out how to overcome the long delays between testing and results?  That is all you need to know.  
 

I’m guessing 80% chance there is no season. 

[Beast]

There will be an 8 to 10 game season starting in November and ending in late February.

[snafu]

I’m not sure if it would make much of a difference, but they could play every ten days or two weeks to deal with testing/tracing. They could probably get a 12 game season that way. 

 

Letting fans in the stadium should be decided by State/local health departments — which is how they’re handling that so far. 

 

[BillsfaninChicago]

This season will be nothing new for Tom Brady since the refs have not let anyone get within 6 feet of him for the last two decades. 

[SirAndrew]

24 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

So they haven’t figured out how to overcome the long delays between testing and results?  That is all you need to know.  
 

I’m guessing 80% chance there is no season. 

Yeah, that was always the biggest hurdle. If it worked out well, I didn’t understand what all the fuss about not playing was about. However, getting quick test results is much easier said than done right now. There are plenty of essential workers whose test results affect the safety of others, and they’re having trouble getting results back in a timely manner. That makes the idea of NFL teams getting them seem less likely, and it’s possibly a bad look for them even if they could. 

4 minutes ago, Leonhart2017 said:

This season will be nothing new for Tom Brady since the refs have not let anyone get within 6 feet of him for the last two decades. 

That was my first thought as well, our very own Donte Whitner seemed to practice social distancing on defense years ago as well. The dude was either not in on the play, or used his back to make a tackle while avoiding face to face contact. 

[DFT]

What we know:  The Bills are a top 5 team in the AFC for the first time in decades.  No Tom Brady and a wide-open East.  The team has virtually no flaws.  Such a thing has not been seen in Buffalo in eons.  

 

What we don’t know:  The effects of Buffalo’s change...  Such an anomaly as this has apparently disrupted both the space time continuum and life as we know it, inciting mass hysteria, resulting in a world-wide pandemic, riots, anarchy and an unsavory political climate.  Dogs living with cats; the end of Chuck E Cheese and Tik Tok is actually skynet and they’re live.  

 

 

This is is what happens, Buffalo....    This is what happens when you meddle with forces beyond your 8-8 understanding.  

 

 

Thanks a lot, Tim Graham....

[machine gun kelly]

I must be in the minority, but I still contend there will be in this order a delayed training camp, no pre season games, a 16 game season with an expanded practice squad.  They will have the sidelines expanded as Dr. David Chow (the old San Diego team doctor who is always interviewed by various sources) suggested from the 40 to 40 yard line to the 20 to the 20 to practice social distancing.  
 

Why, quite simple, $.  The owners and the players have too much to lose.  They will put (most) of their health at some risk to keep making from hundreds of thousands to millions in a year. As it is most young people think they are invincible so they’ll take the risk.  Some NFL players will have great careers post football, but many believe in their hearts will not so they worked their whole life to make these $.

 

Just one man’s cynical view, and I could be wrong at everything I just said, but I may not.  Just like everyone on this board.  We are just speculating.

[DefenseWins]

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/07/10/bengals-tell-season-ticket-holders-no-tailgating-in-stadium-parking-lots/

 

We know that the Bengals will not be allowing any "TailGating" in Stadium parking lots this year, assuming that fans will even be allowed in at all... Stay Tuned folks...

 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

1 hour ago, LabattBlue said:

So they haven’t figured out how to overcome the long delays between testing and results?  That is all you need to know.  
 

I’m guessing 80% chance there is no season. 

 

And if they do figure that out, they will catch hell from the rest of the country who are waiting over a week for test results, some even much longer.

[YoloinOhio]

2 minutes ago, DefenseWins said:

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/07/10/bengals-tell-season-ticket-holders-no-tailgating-in-stadium-parking-lots/

 

We know that the Bengals will not be allowing any "TailGating" in Stadium parking lots this year, assuming that fans will even be allowed in at all... Stay Tuned folks...

 

It’s easy to tailgate outside of the stadium lots in cincy, if fans are allowed at games 

[Doc]

1 hour ago, LabattBlue said:

So they haven’t figured out how to overcome the long delays between testing and results?  That is all you need to know.  
 

I’m guessing 80% chance there is no season. 

 

Becton Dickinson's test gives results in 15 minutes. 

[Mickey]

1 hour ago, snafu said:

I’m not sure if it would make much of a difference, but they could play every ten days or two weeks to deal with testing/tracing. They could probably get a 12 game season that way. 

 

Letting fans in the stadium should be decided by State/local health departments — which is how they’re handling that so far. 

 

 

Sure, letting the states each make their own rules has worked out perfectly so far. Thank goodness the virus recognizes and respects state borders. I bet WWII would have been over much quicker than it was if we went to war one state at a time. Isn't that the first rule of warfare, "dispersement of force"? 

 

Seriously, I think they should have one set of rules league wide. Go 100% Mordor: One rule for the Players in their Locker rooms of formica, One rule for the owner-lords under their stadiums, One rule to bring them all and in the virus bind them. In the land of the NFL, where the pigskins lie.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Mickey

[17islongenough]

They will have to see how baseball does. I think their the only other league that will have travel

[JoshAllenHasBigHands]

8 minutes ago, Mickey said:

 

Sure, letting the states each make their own rules has worked out perfectly so far. Thank goodness the virus recognizes and respects state borders. I bet WWII would have been over much quicker than it was if we went to war one state at a time. Isn't that the first rule of warfare, "dispersement of force"? 

 

Seriously, I think they should have one set of rules league wide. Go 100% Mordor: One rule for the Players in their Locker rooms of formica, One rule for the owner-lords under their stadiums, One rule to bring them all and in the virus bind them. In the land of the NFL, where the pigskins lie.

 

Yeah, and unlike the federal government, the League can set forth a universal set of rules.  Of course, when it came to how we responded to the coronavirus, the federal government didn't have the power to universally mandate how States responded to the coronavirus, nor would the States have listened to Trump. But that is neither here nor there. 

[MJS]

I think all the games will be played on time. The players will have to alter their equipment and get tested a lot, and those with positive tests will have to quarantine for awhile.

 

And I don't think fans will be allowed at the games at first, but they will probably let a small amount of fans come later in the season.

 

I don't get all the pessimism. There's no reason to think there will not be a season.

[FireChans]

1 hour ago, Mickey said:

 

Sure, letting the states each make their own rules has worked out perfectly so far. Thank goodness the virus recognizes and respects state borders. I bet WWII would have been over much quicker than it was if we went to war one state at a time. Isn't that the first rule of warfare, "dispersement of force"? 

 

Seriously, I think they should have one set of rules league wide. Go 100% Mordor: One rule for the Players in their Locker rooms of formica, One rule for the owner-lords under their stadiums, One rule to bring them all and in the virus bind them. In the land of the NFL, where the pigskins lie.

Unfortunately we don’t live in a dictatorship I guess.

 

Anywho, the multiple waves of testing will ensure the season is played. As long as players don’t break bubble.

[snafu]

1 hour ago, Mickey said:

 

Sure, letting the states each make their own rules has worked out perfectly so far. Thank goodness the virus recognizes and respects state borders. I bet WWII would have been over much quicker than it was if we went to war one state at a time. Isn't that the first rule of warfare, "dispersement of force"? 

 

Seriously, I think they should have one set of rules league wide. Go 100% Mordor: One rule for the Players in their Locker rooms of formica, One rule for the owner-lords under their stadiums, One rule to bring them all and in the virus bind them. In the land of the NFL, where the pigskins lie.

 

I think the virus is flaring up regionally at this point ) maybe it has always been that way). My comment on States was applicable to fans in the stadiums. They’d know locally whether it is a good idea or not. I really couldn’t care less about that aspect, to tell the truth. 

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

3 hours ago, SirAndrew said:

Yeah, that was always the biggest hurdle. If it worked out well, I didn’t understand what all the fuss about not playing was about. However, getting quick test results is much easier said than done right now. There are plenty of essential workers whose test results affect the safety of others, and they’re having trouble getting results back in a timely manner. That makes the idea of NFL teams getting them seem less likely, and it’s possibly a bad look for them even if they could. 

That was my first thought as well, our very own Donte Whitner seemed to practice social distancing on defense years ago as well. The dude was either not in on the play, or used his back to make a tackle while avoiding face to face contact. 

 

I reacted “laugh” but that was to the Whitner part of the post.  I needed a laugh, so thanks for that!

 

There are schools that plan to get 1 day turn around on frequent testing.  Boston University, Harvard, Cornell.  But they’re places that either already have, or acquired, their own high-throughput viral extraction and RT-PCR test equipment and that have been working on getting their own existing labs (in Cornell’s case, the Veterinary School Laboratory) certified for doing human pathogen testing (eg COVID-19) and they are hiring/training their own laboratory technicians to do the work and planning to take other measures to streamline results such as batch testing (you combine 5 tests, if they’re all negative good, if the batch is positive retest that batch).  So from the test throughput POV, it’s not a zero-sum game.

 

You kind of allude to my real problem with football starting up, and I love football and I suppose may be drummed out of the regiment as a “Debbie Downer” for this.  But if the NFL is planning to contract with the same available resources (eg LabCorps, Quest, Hospital laboratories etc) that are serving the general population, but to give their tests priority treatment - keep in mind I don’t know the details of their plan - At best, as you say it’s a “Bad Look”.  At worst, is it moral, if football players are getting screened when, as you say, people whose test results affect the safety of others such as nursing home aides are not getting results back in a timely way?

 

Delays in test results also pose a behavioral problem for many workers who know they’ve had a community exposure.  Their company may prohibit them from working if they are tested, until they obtain their result.  That means if it takes 5-7 days to get a result, they sit home for 5-7 days without pay.  So they understandably resist to get tested.

We really can address this - screening tests of people without known contact or symptoms can certainly be pooled to achieve greater efficiency, and to conserve test reagents - but we aren’t, at least not in a systematic and widespread way.

 

Now the NFL may have a coherent plan that doesn’t pull their tests from the same pool of testing resources that are overwhelmed right now in many states.  Maybe they’ve bought a gazillion of those Abbott rapid result tests that are about 20-30% false negative, and plan to line them up in the locker rooms and hire lab techs to run them.  I don’t know.