Last week several members of the Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys tested positive for Covid-19 as NFL headquarters opened up in anticipation of 2020 NFL training camps. Former Houston Texan Kareem Jackson even tested positive for it while traveling last week.
Since states have opened back up, allowing bars and restaurants and parks to allow guests, so has the number of cases.
The NFL season is still three and a half months away, but before week one, there are training camp logistics, and preseason games, that will all have to deal with Covid-19. This summer is going to be entirely different than any other summer. It’s not going to be simple or easy to continuously test, play against other teams, and try and isolate individuals when they test positively. As of right now, the NFL is sticking to its schedule, but all this can change in an instant.
Currently, the regular season will begin on September 10th when the Kansas City Chiefs play your Houston Texans. The offseason programs will take place at the team’s headquarters and are still planned and in place to begin in late July.
ESPN reported that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has told NFL teams players would need to be isolated and be constantly tested. Additionally, he has advised sports leagues to to play the season through the NBA’s bubble model, where groups of teams stays at various hotels, and all play their games in a singular city.
“Unless players are essentially in a bubble — insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day — it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,” Fauci said. “If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year.”
As more and more places open up, the numbers will increase, and once fall and winter arrive, it is reasonable to expect a second spike. No one knows if this is a new normal, something that will go away, we all live with, or something that has to be lived with until a vaccine is created. No one has any idea. As far as football goes, the NFL is sticking to their schedule, but this all may end up changing dramatically between now and then.
Hopefully things work out, and we can all spend the first Thursday of the year watching Houston take on the defending champs in Kansas City.