The effects of the coronavirus on the NFL off-season continues. Today the league sent a memo to teams that detailed rules for free agency and contact with players. As part of that memo, the league said that off-season training activities have been postponed indefinitely.
The first off-season workouts were scheduled for April 20 with off-season training activities to begin in mid-May and continuing through mid-June. Now that’s all up in the air.
In addition to the indefinite delay in the start of off-season activities, the NFL is prohibiting any player from entering a team facility for at least the next two weeks through March 31. This excludes the team’s current players who are receiving medical treatment.
This means that teams will not be able to host any free agents players they look to sign or free agent players with whom they have signed.
These restrictions obviously make it difficult to give medical exams to potential free agent players. Whether a deal is official often depends on passing a physical. And being that players are not allowed to visit the team and teams are not allowed to travel to visit the player, that complicates things.
For that, the NFL is working on putting together a list of neutral physicians with whom players may receive a physical. We’re certainly in some uncharted waters here.
