Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert’s positive coronavirus test in mid-March brought the sports world to a standstill. Key NFL figures like Sean Payton and Von Miller tested positive later in the spring. NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills acknowledges players will test positive when teams reconvene, but the league expects the testing landscape to be different in the next month or two (Twitter links via ESPN.com’s Dan Graziano).
While testing has been inconsistent in the United States since the virus began spreading rapidly in March, some within the NFL are banking on increased test availability by the fall allowing for a 16-game season, Mark Maske of the Washington Post notes. Considering the roster and staff sizes the NFL brings, testing will be a greater task compared to the NBA and Major League Baseball. But the league reopened facilities (though not for coaches and players) Tuesday and has seen some states announce sports can be played by the end of the month.
Coaches are not expected to be back at facilities until all states’ stay-at-home orders cease, and Sills did not put a timeline on when players will be permitted to return. Training camp has been widely viewed as the first time players will be back. The NFL is working with other sports leagues on return protocols, though Sills acknowledges the nature of football presents a different challenge (Twitter links via NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero).
Browns center J.C. Tretter said players returning to team workouts is still “a ways out.” The newly elected NFLPA president said the NFLPA has held biweekly meetings about various COVID-19 issues, including players with pre-existing conditions, Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com notes. A player or coach in a higher-risk category contracting the virus would obviously become a much more serious issue for the league. The NFL and NFLPA have engaged in discussions about protocols for when players test positive, Maske adds, noting no agreement is in place.
With 90-man rosters in place until cutdown day, 2,880 players along with the hundreds of coaches and various other personnel will need extensive tests once teams reconvene for camp. Testing protocol has not yet emerged, but Sills said the league will make a “strong commitment” to avoid taking tests away from people who need them (Twitter link via ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler). Until a testing plan emerges, it is difficult to speculate how the NFL’s effort to accomplish this will look.
How about guys with pre existing conditions or who have family members who have them just sit out for the year and everyone else goes about their business as usual.
Wanna play? Ok.
Don’t wanna play? Ok..you don’t get paid for the year but you can still get a year off your current contract so your free agency isn’t delayed. But if you sit out the season you also have to return roster bonus or any money, outside signing bonus on contracts signed prior to this year, you earned for the league year.
The testing and protocols could prove to be a real nightmare. Suppose the Chiefs are told Mahomes has tested positive, hold him out of a game, lose that game and then learn the test was a false positive.