While most U.S. professional sports leagues had seasons halted that were either in set to begin (MLB) or in progress, the NFL was in a unique position to have months of preparation for an unprecedented season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
But it’s been four months since that initial shutdown if U.S. pro sports, and there’s still plenty of uncertainty among the NFL’s plans for health and safety. With rookies slated to report to camp in just a couple days, Texans star J.J. Watt went public with a list of concerns.
Watt tweeted Thursday that there’s still much that the players don’t know after four NFLPA calls.
Watt emphasized that the players want to play, but the league has seemingly kept the NFLPA in the dark about the health and safety plans. Not knowing the testing frequency seems like a huge unknown just days ahead of rookies reporting.
And it’s important to note that the NFL won’t be operating under the bubble system we’ll see in the NBA, NHL and MLS. If the players don’t know about the testing protocol after months of time to prepare, that doesn’t offer an encouraging outlook for the league.
At the very least, the concerns raised by Watt could put an on-time training camp into question.
