PLAYERS WANT TO PLAY, BUT THE NFL NEEDS A PLAN

BY ADAM GREENE

Thursday Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt laid out exactly the issues at hand as the NFL attempts to play in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Specifically, Watt and the NFLPA need an Infections Disease Emergency Response plan from the league. They need to know how testing will work and they need to know how a positive test would affect contracts and rosters.

With the season a month and a half away on the calendar and the preseason (maybe) starting in a month, these seem like basic requests. But the NFL is dragging its feet and I think it’s because they want to see how the NBA’s resumed season goes.

The NBA is slated to restart on July 30, with players bubbled up in Orlando. To make it work, the players need to stay in that bubble and be tested regularly. It probably wouldn’t hurt if they wore masks, but I doubt that’s going to happen.

If the NBA can pull it off, then the NFL will have a blueprint on what they can do. The Philadelphia Eagles have already banned fans from home games and expect other teams to do the same. It’ll be risky enough to play without having a bunch of drunken doofuses in the stands hurling coronavirus-covered batteries at you.

On July 13 the NFL unveiled a new mouth shield designed by Oakley. Watt, specifically, has said he’s not interested in playing with a shield, but my guess is he’ll give a test drive before he bails on it. The fact is, the whole set up looks like a solid idea and doesn’t look like it could restrict athletic breathing.

But the problem isn’t just protecting players once they’re on the field. As of now, 72 players have tested positive for COVID-19. Granted, that’s a small number considering there are over 2,800 players in the league, but it shows how difficult it will be to keep it out of training rooms, team facilities and the playing field.

Making matters harder to tackle is political cowardice in each team’s individual state. While the New York and California-based teams can count on their state and local governments to help keep them safe by enacting public measures, including mandatory mask orders, others can’t. The three Florida-based teams are currently located in a state that leads the world in active COVID-19 cases and sets new records every day while its governor, Ron DeSantis thinks the spike of worldwide proportions is the fault of the tee vee.

If DeSantis was the mayor in Jaws, he would have just shoveled kids right into the shark’s mouth.

The NHL, MLB and aforementioned NBA are all giving it a go in spite of that and there’s no reason to believe the NFL will be any different. But they need to address the issues Watt pointed out and they need to guarantee some cash for players, especially guys down the roster.

As a pro league that makes most of its money from television contracts, they can make it work. But the clock is ticking and these basic problems must be solved.

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