The Bears are confident in the safety measures they’ve taken at Halas Hall.
Whether that will be enough is a different question. As NFL teams begin training camp this week, many are looking on in horror toward the infection that has paused the Marlins’ baseball season. But the Bears have the square footage — they expanded Halas Hall by 162,500 — and technological advances to make their best effort.
“I really believe we have the best setup in the NFL in regards to how we’re handling this,” general manager Ryan Pace said Wednesday.
Head trainer Andre Tucker spearheaded the effort to, the team said, go beyond suggested NFL protocols. As the Infection Control Officer, he oversees the team’s coronavirus screening, cleaning, signage and education. He’s the first point of contact should anyone exhibit coronavirus symptoms and the Bears’ main conduit to the league.
Wednesday, Tucker gave a day-in-the-life example of steps players must take just to enter Halas Hall. Veterans will begin doing so later this week, while rookies are already inside.
Players take their temperatures upon waking up. If they register under 100.4 degrees, they must take a four-question questionnaire via a phone app. If those questions are answered sufficiently, they get a color-coded day pass to Halas Hall. Tucker is notified if the questionnaire and early-morning temperature check raise flags.
After parking at Halas Hall, players head to the check-in trailer. Inside five testing bays, players can take PCR or antibody tests. The tests are sent to a lab in Minnesota; the Bears expect results 24 hours later.
After about 10 minutes inside the trailer, players walk through the main entrance at Halas Hall. Tucker made all the team’s doorways touchless — they open automatically when a player scans his ID.
Once inside, players have their temperature taken again by a thermal mirroring scanner before proceeding to a PPE station, which features masks — mandatory inside Halas Hall — as well as hand sanitizer and gloves.
Then players walk to the team’s proximity reader station. Looking like electronic watches, proximity readers track interactions with everyone else in the building, helping contact tracing if a player if ever diagnosed with coronavirus.
Only then can players begin the workday. Even then, it feels different.
The cafeteria is no longer a buffet; rather, players eat individually-wrapped meals. Training-room sessions are by appointment only. Weight-lifting sessions are limited to 15 players apiece, with each man assigned the their own equipment. The Bears added a second weight room, inside the Walter Payton Center practice bubble.
In the name of social distancing, the Bears extended their locker room into the player’s lounge. In the bathroom, every other showerhead is turned off. Plexiglass separates urinals.
The Bears have made meeting-room capacity about half of what the NFL protocols require. Full-team meetings will take place on the full-length Payton Center football field.
The Bears know they’ll never be safer than they are at their own practice facility. Rookies live at a nearby hotel, where the team has implemented similar social distancing and disinfecting procedures on their floors. Veterans live at their homes.
“The most at-risk I think we are, is, when everybody leaves Halas Hall at the end of day,” Pace said. “It’s not just the players — it’s the staff, everybody. So, I think that goes back to educating our players and staff to, ‘Don’t make selfish decisions when you leave here.’”
That’s why Tucker is holding virtual safety meetings with both players and their families.
“It’s very important, from an educational standpoint, that you kinda calm down some of the anxieties of the unknown … ” Tucker said. “The more you know, the more you can make a sound and long-lasting positive decision. It doesn’t just affect us in the club. It also affects your family.
“So that’s important, that we encompass everybody in that decision. Because we need them just as much as they need us.”
