BY ADAM GREENE<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s going to be weird, sure, but exactly how weird?<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the MLB and NBA underway, there seems little reason to expect (other than a wholesale labor dispute), that the NFL won\u2019t kick off on time. As of this writing, the NFL and NFLPA\u2019s negotiations are down to three key issues<\/a>; 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the preseason games cancelled, they\u2019ve got a week or so to sort that all out before teams report to training camp and hunker down before Week 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what\u2019s going to look different? First off, forget having fans. While most teams haven\u2019t made fan bans official yet, make no mistake that it\u2019s happening. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If and when fans are allowed, they\u2019ll be required to wear masks and distance, with each stadium only allowing a limited number of people in<\/a>. The New York Giants and New York Jets have been forced by New Jersey order<\/a> to play fanless inside the stadium this season. The Philadelphia Eagles originally said the same, but have punted that call for now<\/a>. The Los Angeles Rams have warned PSL holders that they\u2019ll likely not have fans either<\/a> and if they don\u2019t, neither will the Los Angeles Chargers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Expect that to become a league-wide decision, but not one that closes out fans for the entire year. There\u2019s 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<\/a>. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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<\/a> Oakley, but it won\u2019t be mandatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Training camp rosters have been lowered to 80 players, down 10 from the usual 90. Per the new collective bargaining agreement<\/a>, 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<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u201cexposed\u201d but showing no symptoms, are required to sit a game just as a safety measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow our BetOnline Twitter account<\/a> for the latest sports news and betting odds, and stay tuned on the Instagram feed<\/a> for more good information too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY ADAM GREENE Unless the NFL and NFLPA reach an impasse neither can overcome, the NFL season will arrive as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":12515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t