While other professional sports leagues, including the NBA and MLS, are moving forward operating in a “bubble” environment for the players, coaches, staffers and officials, the NFL is going its own way. So far, the NFL is sticking firm with playing games in normal stadiums on a normal travel schedule with nods to local regulations surrounding COVID-19.
Dr .Anthony Fauci, the recognizable director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, thinks the NFL needs to be more like the other sports. Fauci spoke about the NFL’s plan on CNN and frowned on the concept of the players not being in an isolated bubble situation.
“Unless players are essentially in a bubble — insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day — it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,” Fauci said.
Fauci also believes that any second wave of infections during the NFL’s season would be a death knell for the 2020 season.
“If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year,” Fauci said.
The NFL and NFLPA continue to work out the logistics and planning for the upcoming season. Nothing is yet set in stone. Fauci’s admonition is a sign that it might require more flexibility and be more of a struggle than the NFL would like it to be.
