The NFL announced the league’s entire regular-season schedule in May, but will the season actually happen?
The NFL closed team headquarters and offseason programs due to concerns of spreading coronavirus (COVID-19) during the pandemic, which has already claimed the lives of more than 110,000 United States citizens. Some parts of the country are seeing rises in cases after reopening following shelter-in-place protocols.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key member of the White House's coronavirus task force, expressed skepticism in an appearance with CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta whether it makes sense to play the 2020 NFL season without keeping players in isolation.
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"Unless players are essentially in a bubble -- insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day -- it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,” Dr. Fauci said. “If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year."
Jed York, 49ers CEO, last week told Jennifer Lee Chan he believed there would be an NFL season.
“There will be a season in some way, shape or form,” York said. “After seeing the progress of reopening, I am confident in that.”
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On Monday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke to ESPN about working through the plans for the upcoming season in the likely event that players test positive for COVID-19.
"We expect we are going to have positive tests,” Goodell said. “That is part of the increased testing that we will be going through and that is something that we just want to make sure that our protocols are working and to date.
“We are seeing very positive reactions in the sense that we are making sure we respond quickly, protect the personnel that may be impacted by that and others that may be in contact with them."
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