Tongue firmly in his cheek, Bears chairman George McCaskey said he gave Matt Nagy advice for Sunday’s season opener.
“Let’s get up on them early, ‘Sonny,’” he said, “and take the crowd out of the game.”
Of course, there will be no crowd in Detroit. There won’t be cheerleaders or mascots or practice squad players anywhere at Ford Field, part of precautions taken by the NFL to protect against coronavirus spread. Instead, crowd noise will be piped in — NFL Films is providing soundtracks for the 30 stadiums from which it has collected ambient audio — to air alongside loud music.
But it won’t be the same as fans cheering in person.
“I think once we get into the heat of the game,” offensive coordinator Bill Lazor said, “we’ll forget that there is no noise.”
Said defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano: “It’s going to be weird.”
The Bears are used to having a robust fan section at Ford Field, an easy drive from Chicago.
“There’s some faces that I’m used to seeing that I’m going to miss,” defensive lineman Akiem Hick said. “I bring my own juice, though.”
Sunday will be the apex — and the end of — the most bizarre offseason in NFL history, one in which Bears players didn’t gather at Halas Hall until late July. When they did, they were subjected to daily noise swabs, symptom quizzes, hand-sanitizing procedures and socially distanced locker rooms. The Bears didn’t have a single player become infected during training camp — though, last month, nine players and staff were found to have produced false positive coronavirus tests.
“COVID Camp 2020,” Pagano said, “wasn’t your typical training camp.”
The NFL canceled all four preseason games and placed strict rules on team’s in-season travel procedures. The Bears booked two planes to Detroit, so players can sit in a socially distanced setting. When they land, they’ll stay separated in buses. At the team hotel, they won’t be allowed to mingle with anyone outside of the Bears’ traveling party.
The Bears are set to take the final coronavirus tests of the week on Saturday morning. They’ll leave town later than usual on Saturday afternoon so they can have a team meal at Halas Hall, rather than on the road. Their traveling party —outside of the 53 players — was about 130 people last year. This season it’s 70.
The Bears could make a statement Sunday in the middle of the empty stadium — although Fox is expected to insert “virtual fans” on the broadcast. The team has talked about whether they wanted to protest during the national anthem since the May killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. Nagy wants the players to make a decision as a team, and McCaskey said he wants players to follow their conscience. Each team will have anti-racist phrases stenciled into end zones, and players are allowed to wear helmet decals of victims’ names.
Players must wear masks while traveling and in public spaces, but not on the sideline. Coaches, medical staff and other personnel must wear them during the game. Nagy has been preparing for this all offseason; his coaches wear masks during practice, and he has even donned one while alone in his office.
At first, Nagy said, it was strange to see empty seats when the Bears scrimmaged at Soldier Field on Aug. 29. He eventually fed off the players’ energy. He was able to get a sense, too, of whether his players will need silent counts and other non-verbal cues, the way they would in a typical road game.
The scrimmage featured Soldier Field’s new public-address announcer, game-day music, video features and fake crowd noise. McCaskey watched it alone — visited only by a security guard, he joked, who wanted to make sure he was still alive.
“It was bizarre. …” McCaskey said. “It’s unusual. And I’m sure it’s going to require an adjustment on the players’ part.”
And the coaches.’
“It will certainly be strange when a touchdown is scored,” Nagy said. “How that goes, what that looks like. Or sounds like.”
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