Time for Concern?

Posted: June 30th, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | Comments Off on Time for Concern?

We will have NFL football. We will have NFL football. We will have NFL football.

I hope.

I’m starting to wonder, though.

Mike only talks about a limited preseason in that clip, but you have to wonder if that will change as the pandemic continues to roll along. We are seeing the impact in other sports.

These are pro athletes choosing to sit out rather than play.

We are seeing college and pro athletes test positive as they gather for spring/summer training. Clemson’s football team has had 37 players test positive.

Then we hear stories like this.

https://twitter.com/ADavidHaleJoint/status/1276311388085014528

What about players who are vulnerable? What if they have family members who are vulnerable?

College football is tougher to control. You have 90 players, a big support staff and everyone is on a crowded college campus. Some of that will change, but getting 90 kids that are 18-22 to be smart and safe is a significant uphill battle. I don’t say this with any kind of judgment. My knucklehead friends and I would have been the same way if this happened while we were that age. “Forget Covid, we need more beer.”

Professional football players are a different story. There are still some knuckleheads involved, but most of these guys are going to handle their business the right way. Millions of dollars are on the line and we all know money talks.

The NFL is lucky that they still have another month to see what happens with the virus. Maybe cases will start to decline. Maybe testing will continue to improve.

We do have to understand that cases could continue piling up. If that happens, how does the NFL handle the situation?

What happens if a team has 10 positive tests a few days before a game in the middle of the season? You could see a team lose multiple starting players from the same position group. The entire OL has to be replaced. Or the entire secondary.

This stuff isn’t likely to happen, but we’re not talking about some insane idea like Sharknado. All it takes is one player getting Covid and he could infect those around him.

The NFL has to figure out how to keep players safe, fans happy and lawyers away. That is a nearly impossible task and I don’t envy them having to come up with plans that handle all of that.

It appears the NFL is considering just about anything.

I hope there is NFL season. I can’t imagine a fall without football. That w0uld be insanely weird.

But I think we’d be naive not to at least discuss the fact it might happen.

Keep your fingers crossed. As we’ve learned recently, there is no sure thing in 2020.

*****

Need something to cheer you up? This is one of my all time favorite NFL games.

Just glorious.

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