As the NFL facilities are poised to open in many states around the country, the Detroit Lions are still in a waiting game while the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions remain across Michigan. Progress towards a return to action is coming, but Detroit’s team physician is preaching caution.
Appearing on “The Adam Schefter Podcast”, Lions team doctor Asheesh Bedi expressed major concern and reservations about the potential for the second wave of the pandemic to hit during the traditional football season.
“I think it’s a real concern,” Bedi told Schefter. “And obviously that would be incredibly devastating not just for sports and seasons, but for the economy and so many facets of our life. I think that’s why it’s so critical that our behavior in the upcoming months will have such a critical influence on what we’re seeing in the following months.”
Bedi, an orthopedic surgeon by training, warns about getting too comfortable once the state of Michigan loosens restrictions.
“I think as we start to see things loosen a bit and feeling like that first wave is behind us that we absolutely recognize that we can’t let our guard down,” Bedi explained.
The NFLPA and the league are working towards a plan for players that includes comprehensive testing plans, increased safety measures in the weight room and training facilities, and ways to handle in-game and in-practice contact as safely as possible. Bedi is trying to work on how to implement the ramped-up testing for everyone in the Lions organization.
“As we get a better sense of how frequently and rapidly we can do that for team and personnel, that’ll give us real-time knowledge if a person is a so-called under investigation or a COVID-positive case, and then that gives you the ability to rapidly contact-trace them and to contain that potential infection. It’s going to be a lot of these aspects coming together, recognizing that football anyway is a contact sport by nature so there’s going to be aspects of this that are a unique challenge, unchartered territory for us to figure out.”
The Lions will continue to operate from remote locations until at least June 12th, when the latest lockdown order from Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer is set to expire.
