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The National Football League is on a mission to continue business as usual. That’s not unexpected, with the league using the multiple month gap until the start of its season as a cause to posit that it should be able to start the season on time, with fans in the seats. That was the case on a conference call on Tuesday, when NFL executive Vice President said:
“On the season itself and our planning; our expectation is fully-directed at playing a full season starting on schedule and having a full regular season and a full set of playoffs, just as we did in 2019. That’s our expectation. Am I certain? I’m not certain I’ll be here tomorrow, but I’m planning on it and same thing, we’re planning on having the full season. That’s what we talked about…The belief and the information that we have is leading us to continue to focus on having the season start on time and be played in a normal way.”
If that sounds outlandish or at least hyper-optimistic, that’s because it probably is. The United States has by far the most recorded coronavirus cases in the world at 277,205 (in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and four territories), with 6,593 deaths, per the CDC, more than twice as many as Spain, the second-highest country. And that’s with inconsistent, not readily-available testing, and experts stating that Americans are underestimating the duration of the crisis.
That NFL conference call was the very same call in which the league reaffirmed the NFL Draft will take place on April 23-25 and laid out it’s plan for a “hub and spoke” setup: each team with a 10-person max in their war room, all six feet apart, with the commission at the central “hub” location.
This, of course, would defy a number of state and local shelter-in-place orders, including the state of California and San Francisco and San Mateo counties, as state and local officials have confirmed to KNBR.
Just two days after that call, a memo was sent out to general managers in the league advising for the option of a second scenario, in which the draft would be conducted entirely remote. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Saturday morning, that is the scenario the league will likely go ahead with.
So to take the league at face value when looking at a nebulous, unpredictable situation during the greatest global health crisis of the 21st century would be foolish, just as it would be to take what President Donald Trump reportedly said in a Saturday conference calls with multiple league commissioners.
As reported by Schefter and Adrian Wojnarowski, Trump said he believes the NFL should start on time and with fans.
“Trump also said he hopes to have fans back in stadiums and arenas by August and September, sources said, though it is currently unclear if medical experts find that to be a realistic timeline amid the current coronavirus pandemic.”
That optimism was just about immediately rejected by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
“I’m not anticipating that happening in this state,” Newsom said of the NFL starting on time with fans due to the fact that the infrastructure to identify and surveil covid-19 positive individuals is not in place and he doesn’t expect it to be in place by that timeframe. His full answer is below.
https://twitter.com/LindseyThiry/status/1246531599988150273?s=20
Just as the shelter-in-place order by the City of San Francisco was the first in the country, and set up the potential first NBA game to be played without fans (between the Warriors and Nets, which was quickly shelved after Utah Jazz star Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus, and the entire season appears to now be in jeopardy), California was the first state with a shelter-in-place order.
In many cases, states wait for a precedent to be set by other states to go ahead with legislation or statewide orders, and Newsom’s rejection of that NFL and Trump optimism at this juncture means that three of the league’s teams in the 49ers, Rams and Chargers, and possibly four (depending on if the Raiders’ stadium in Las Vegas finishes on time), likely won’t be permitted to play home games, at least not with fans, in August and September.
That obviously also applies to other leagues and presents an increasingly pessimistic future for an MLB season. It’s currently unclear how the NFL will approach this, but all signs point towards the season being delayed, despite the league’s predictable insistence that won’t happen.
