WHAT WILL THIS NFL SEASON ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE?

BY ADAM GREENE

Unless the NFL and NFLPA reach an impasse neither can overcome, the NFL season will arrive as promised on Sept. 10 when the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs host the Houston Texans.

But, barring the obvious question (Will there be an NFL season at all?) as teams roll into training camp, the question remains, will those games look like? It’s going to be weird, sure, but exactly how weird?

With the MLB and NBA underway, there seems little reason to expect (other than a wholesale labor dispute), that the NFL won’t kick off on time. As of this writing, the NFL and NFLPA’s negotiations are down to three key issues; the training camp acclimation period, opt-out procedures/contracts and the long term salary cap issues caused by a loss in revenue due to ticket sales during the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.

With the preseason games cancelled, they’ve got a week or so to sort that all out before teams report to training camp and hunker down before Week 1.

So what’s going to look different? First off, forget having fans. While most teams haven’t made fan bans official yet, make no mistake that it’s happening. It’s going to be tough enough to keep players healthy and on the field without a stadium full people blasting coronovirus at them by way of racial slurs.

If and when fans are allowed, they’ll be required to wear masks and distance, with each stadium only allowing a limited number of people in. The New York Giants and New York Jets have been forced by New Jersey order to play fanless inside the stadium this season. The Philadelphia Eagles originally said the same, but have punted that call for now. The Los Angeles Rams have warned PSL holders that they’ll likely not have fans either and if they don’t, neither will the Los Angeles Chargers.

Expect that to become a league-wide decision, but not one that closes out fans for the entire year. There’s been some real movement on the COVID-19 vaccine front, especially with the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine with thoughts that it could be ready as early as October. It’s that reason that the league wants to keep the door open for fans, especially in the latter half of the season. Certainly the players would be vaccinated the second one becomes available.

As for the games themselves, expect the refs in masks and gloves all the time. Coaches will wear masks on the sidelines too. The players have a mask option thanks to Oakley, but it won’t be mandatory.

Training camp rosters have been lowered to 80 players, down 10 from the usual 90. Per the new collective bargaining agreement, gameday and practice squad rosters have already been expanded, but look for changes in the injured reserve system, offering the possibility of players returning after three weeks on IR.  

As important as the injury report was before the pandemic, expect extra scrutiny this season, with Twitter and social media offering maybe the only resources as players could be pulled on gameday after a high temperature reading or after showing any coronavirus symptoms. What might be most frustrating, to teams and fans, is that players “exposed” but showing no symptoms, are required to sit a game just as a safety measure.

It’ll likely change practice too, as coaches will almost be forced to give back ups more reps in case just such a scenario occurs. What this will mean for gamblers is a veritable Sunday rush, minutes before kick off, as rosters will then only really be set.

On the bright side, baseball and basketball are underway and seem to be working out fine so far. As long as the league and players can meet on the minutiae, the games are happening with all the fun stuff comes with them.

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