KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ If there was ever a doubt that the sports world is radically different this year, look no further than the 2020 NFL draft.
Instead of being an annual event filled with league-wide festivities and celebratory hugs shared on stage between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and just-drafted players, remote cameras were set up across the country at the homes of team decision-makers and draft hopefuls.
The adjustment, of course, was because of the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down sports since mid-March and continues to linger around the nation. So too do questions about whether the NFL will be able to conduct training camps, which traditionally start in late July, or even if the regular season will start on time.
"Unfortunately, the truthful answer to many of those questions is we just don't know right now," Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said Saturday during a Zoom call. "We haven't had those discussions as an ownership group in terms of contingency plans for the league."
"I know it's something the league has been thinking about. Once we get past the draft, it's something I'm sure that we'll start discussing at the committee level first, and then as an entire ownership."
The league's team owners were scheduled to meet in late March, but the coronavirus outbreak led to a cancellation of that gathering.
Hunt called the spring annual meeting "the most important one of the year." Over the course of several days, it's where important subjects, including proposed rules changes, are discussed.
In lieu of meeting in person, teams around the league held virtual conference calls to hash out some of those matters. But Hunt said it wasn't the same as what would've happened during the owners' usual in-person discussions.
"That was a couple of hours virtual call and it's hard to replace what you would've done in three or four days," he said.
The next opportunity for team owners to convene is scheduled for late May in Marina Del Ray, Calif. Matters tabled in March will take the fore, in addition to how the league hopes to proceed with its regular season.
"It will obviously be prudent to have some contingency plans, because we just don't know how the pandemic is going to play out over the next three to four months," Hunt said. "It's hard to say what will happen with training camp.
"I hope we're able to be up there in (St. Joseph, Mo.), and that's our plan right now, but there's a scenario probably where that is not possible."
