The NFL Players Association has gotten an answer to one of its main concerns heading into 2020 training camp. The league and NFLPA have agreed on coronavirus testing protocols, according to the NFL's chief medical official, Dr. Allen Sills, who reportedly shared the news during a conference call on Monday. Here’s how it's supposed to take place: It is expected that players will need more than one negative test before they are allowed inside team facilities. For the first two weeks of camp, players will be tested daily. If the positive test rate is below five percent after those two weeks, it will move to every other day. If a player does test positive and has no symptoms, he will be allowed to return to the team facility 10 days after the initial test, or getting two negative tests within five days of the positive test, per NFL.com’s Judy Battista. However, if the player is positive and showing symptoms, he must remain away from the facility for at least 10 days since they began, as well as not experience them for at least three days. As for those in contact with the player who tested positive, they can return to the facility if they test negative and show no symptoms. Isolation and testing will begin immediately if that occurs. The NFL has also figured out a way to tell which players have been in close contact with others. “Proximity recording devices” will be worn during all team activities, and they will be able to tell which players and staff were in close contact with someone who tested positive. This announcement comes a day after players around the league joined forces with the hashtag “#WeWantToPlay,” which was a message stating the frustrations over the lack of protocols and guidelines regarding coronavirus heading into training camp. Before Monday, players had no clue how testing would be working. Giants’ Saquon Barkley and Nate Solder as well as Jets’ Frank Gore and Pierre Desir were among those who spoke out. While this is a major box checked off heading into the year, more work still needs to be done. Some players are asking about opt-out clauses for those at a higher risk, whether it be themselves or a family member. And the overall structure of training camp, especially the league wanting preseason games while players don’t, is still being discussed. But, with rookies expected to report to camp on July 21, followed by quarterbacks and injured players on July 23 and the rest of the team on July 28, this agreement is a big step in making sure the NFL season is played as safely as possible.
AT LEASE THEY ARE AGREEING ON SOME ISSUES. MAKES ME FEEL A BIT MORE CONFIDENT ABOUT THE 2020 SEASON. The NFLPA wanted no preseason games. The NFL wanted two. A compromise was one, but the NFLPA wouldn’t give in so we are headed to a summer without preseason football. The league today offered the union no preseason games, according to multiple reports. Perhaps the only people disappointed in the news are the undrafted free agents, who now face an even steeper climb to sticking around for the regular season. The news is a big step toward starting training camp on time. A report earlier Monday indicated the league had reduced the number of preseason games it wanted to one, which would have happened the third week of the exhibition season. But as NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith explained Friday: It makes no sense to ask players to risk their health and safety for a meaningless game. “To engage in two games where players would be flying all over the country and then engaging with each other to work, and to do that prior to the season, doesn’t increase the likelihood of starting and finishing the season on time,” Smith said on a Pro Football Writers of America conference call Friday. No preseason games will allow the league to follow a schedule recommended by a joint committee. That schedule calls for three weeks of strength and conditioning work, 10 days of non-padded practice and 10 days of padded practice over the final two weeks. Share this:
Thank you for posting. This is the part that worries me. Players who come into contact with the infected player but are not quarantined. An infected person might take 5 to 14 days to develop symptoms which has the potential to infect everyone on a team. I am skeptical how this would work and would like to hear more about this issue and how this policy can work in practice. I do not know how they are doing things in soccer in Europe or in the NHL nor how successful they have been so far. The outdoor practices worry me less as it is so hard to spread the virus outdoors, it is the indoor contact in locker rooms and meetings that worry me.
should have injected the entire team with corona 3 months ago and been done with it by now. i'll be shocked if half the players don't already have the antibodies anyway. the parties they hosted and went to were crazy!
