On the eve of training camp, the NFL was visited Monday by its worst nightmare. Dressed in Miami blue and black, the Ghost of Coronavirus Yet to Come showed the NFL the worst-case scenario: a season on the brink of cancellation before it really gets started.
At least 13 Marlins players and coaches have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to national reports. It’s a full-blown outbreak, after only three games.
Major League Baseball postponed the Marlins’ Monday game against the Orioles. The Phillies, who hosted the Marlins for three games, had their game against the Yankees called, too. The sport will be play-the-Lotto-lucky if that’s the only damage done. A growing crisis would lead to the very cancelation of the season.
In the best of circumstances, the virus presents a new reality baseball must cope with every day. White Sox manager Rick Renteria woke up with a cough and nasal congestion Monday, went to a Cleveland hospital for tests and, out of caution, stayed away from the ballpark.
Whether the Marlins’ infection becomes an inflection point, it’s a sobering reminder for the NFL, the only league to forge full-steam ahead in the face of the virus. It should give the players pause, too.
Tuesday marks the official start of training camp. In any other year, the Bears’ biggest concern would be their quarterback battle, or kicking derby or debating whether Tarik Cohen speeding into camp on a racecar portended confidence or cockiness.
This year, the biggest story of training camp will be whether players — and the sport — can emerge healthy enough to try to make the regular season work. The details beyond that — Can the league shorten the season if there’s an outbreak? Would it postpone the Super Bowl to play all 16 games? What happens if an entire offensive line tests positive two hours before kickoff? — can only emerge from the hypothetical realm with a disaster-free preseason.
Across sports, preseason bubbles seem to be working. The NHL said Monday that, between July 18-25, more than 800 players were given a total of 4,256 tests. There were zero positives. From July 13-20, zero NBA players holed up at its Disney World campus in Florida tested positive.
Unless commissioner Roger Goodell wants to annex New Zealand in the next 24 hours, though, the NFL won’t have the luxury of isolating itself the way the other two sports have. Rather, the NFL will have to do what Major League Baseball attempted: containing the virus while still letting players to go home — and to grocery stores and gas stations and, short of league-mandated stayaways, anywhere else — at night.
Baseball showed that staying healthy in your own facility is the easy part — only nine players tested positive in the two weeks leading into Monday. But even that’s not foolproof: Monday, the Vikings said head trainer and Infection Control Officer Eric Sugarman, the man in charge of the team’s coronavirus prevention program, tested positive. Later in the day, the team placed four players, including first-round pick Justin Jefferson, on the Reserve/COVID-19 list, set aside for those infected or quarantining after being in contact with someone sick.
The NFL Players Association approved the Bears’ Infection Disease Emergency Plan, which sets forth team protocols for handling an outbreak, on Monday. Starting Tuesday, Bears veterans will begin taking a series of coronavirus tests as a condition of being allowed inside team facilities. Players will be able to attend virtual team meetings — including a mandatory coronavirus meeting — in the interim. Eventually, players will begin strength and conditioning work and build up to mid-August practices.
Once practice begins, it will offer its own unique problems. The first is sheer numbers: NFL rosters will be down to 80 players — or 20 more than the largest baseball team during summer camp — by mid-August. Until last week, the Bears tight ends room alone featured more players than a big-league lineup.
The second is more alarming: contact. For all of the NFL’s quiet confidence in the face of the coronavirus, it’s still not properly explained how someone is expected to block, say, Akiem Hicks during practice without worrying about breathing, bleeding, spitting or sweating on him.
Until then, football players are watching to see how — or if — Major League Baseball tamps down the outbreak.
“Very curious to see how this is handled,” Bears receiver Allen Robinson Tweeted.
The NFL knows the stakes. In an open letter to fans, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said coronavirus “will continue to prevent a major challenge to nearly every area of American life — football is no exception.” He said adaptability and flexibility will be needed going forward.
“Now let’s play football,” he wrote.
If only it were that easy.
