With the start of training camp fast approaching, the NFL has yet to detail how it will play through a global pandemic. Alex Lewis, for one, is not happy with the league’s glacial approach to the matter.
The Jets guard took to Instagram on Wednesday to make his displeasure known. Lewis ripped the league in his story, writing that players have yet to receive any sort of plan for dealing with COVID-19.
“We are three weeks out from reporting to camp. We have yet [to receive] answers to how the NFL plans to handle a season and covid,” Lewis wrote. “I am not going to be a guine[a] pig. Nor am I going out there to just ‘wing it.’ This is ridiculous.”
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that the NFL and NFLPA agreed to a July 28 report date for training camp, but that the two sides were still discussing proper protocols. That report came on June 24.
As demonstrated by the sports that have already returned to action or are about to, detailed policies for everything — from virus testing to travel, to practice to media availability, to rules changes and dining — are essential. The NBA’s guide to health and safety protocols inside its Disney bubble, for example, is 108 pages long. It’s thorough to the point that it includes parameters for rec room ping-pong and instructions on how to properly sanitize a basketball.
In other words, if the NFL wants players to believe that it is taking their safety seriously, it needs to put a plan together soon. Like a playbook, this is information that players need to spend time with. The same goes for coaches, front office members, media, families and anyone else coming into contact with those at NFL facilities.
Until that happens, no one should be in a rush to arrive at training camp.
“I want to see a game plan set in place,” Lewis concluded in his post. “[One] that protects the athletes and the families of the athletes.”
