What the NFL Should Do About COVID-19

You’ve undoubtedly read about the on-going COVID-19 outbreak it the Tennessee Titans’ organization. And of course, you know about the isolated positive tests around the league.

There are a lot of ideas about how to handle this situation. Here is my take on the steps needed to contain and get past the current outbreak and any future ones.

Step 1: Close down for two weeks, starting right now

If the NFL doesn’t close things down, they risk even more players and coaches being exposed to the coronavirus. And health concerns aside, if the Titans’ outbreak becomes a league-wide outbreak, they risk losing a month or more.

Shutting down and quarantining for two weeks means that teams will simply miss their weeks 5 and 6 schedules. And those game can be made up by postponing the playoffs and playing the games in early January.

No one will give the league any crap if they play the Super Bowl in mid-February or even early March. Everyone involved — players, coaches, fans, television networks, fantasy football sites, Vegas — they all want football. And shutting down for two weeks now makes it more likely they will get football. 

Step 2: Give players, coaches, officials, and fans another chance to opt-out

Given the known climate and current conditions, people should be given another opportunity to protect their own health and the health of their families and communities. People’s own health situations might have changed, or they might have more misgivings about playing under current conditions.

The COVID-19 status in some states has gotten better and in some states it’s gotten worse. Giving everyone involved another chance to skip the rest of the season is fair and would show the NFL really does care about player health and safety.

Step 3: Implement new health and safety protocols

The NFL now knows how and why the Titans outbreak got worse. Titans’ players engaged in extra-team practices and events, which worsened the outbreak for them (they continue to have new positive tests). So make new rules that can avoid those risks.

Given the incubation period, any positive test should result in immediate lockdown/quarantine of the entire team. Contact tracing should mean that anyone who spent more than a minute within six feet the infected player or coach should not play in any games until after the maximum incubation period and continuous negative test results.

Even in the modern game, rosters have sometimes been limited to as few as 33 active players per team per game. So if a team has 10 players sidelined for a week, so be it. Every team is under the same rules, so live with the results and move on.

Step 4: Increase penalties for those who violate protocols in step 3

Football players and coaches are always trying to get an edge. And the NFL can’t allow those risk-takers to put the entire sport in jeopardy. The franchises and the sport are always worth more than any single game or even a single season. The NFL needs to make coaches and players understand that.

Everyone involved needs to know that violations of the rules will be punished through fines, suspensions, loss of future draft picks, and even forfeited games. No exceptions.

Coaches and players are short-term thinkers by nature. They know that preparation and winning the next game is crucial to their futures. So they need to be reminded that they will have no future if they put the sport at risk.

Summary

Just my two-cents worth. But I will say that the NFL ignores the widening outbreak at their own peril. No sport is immune. Hell, the U.S. Government can’t even guarantee there won’t be an outbreak in the White House!

Do the right thing, Roger Goodell. For once, finally do the right thing.

- Scott