CHICAGO _ Just as MLB is considering the creation of a bubble or bubbles for postseason play, the NFL is actively discussing the idea, at least for conference championship games and the Super Bowl.
Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive vice president of football operations, said in a teleconference Wednesday that Saints coach Sean Payton introduced the idea on the last committee call.
"Not sure if that is something we could do actually legally," Vincent said. "But the concept itself as you start driving toward the championship run, the players could do it if they choose to do it _ not club-driven _ but to create some form of bubble, that secure environment to make sure there is no risk of outside (infection) as the teams start driving toward that championship run.
"We did tell Coach Payton that it was something both Dr. (Allen) Sills (the NFL chief medical officer) and the teams would explore. We just have to be flexible. Is it something we are considering? All things are on the table during this fluid environment."
The NBA and NHL are conducting their postseasons in bubbles right now and have had success navigating the COVID-19 pandemic so far. Baseball has hit some rough spots with the Cardinals and Marlins having to reschedule multiple games, and the Reds postponing games earlier this week after a positive test.
Overall, the NFL is pleased with where it is at right now in the first week of practice in full pads. As of Tuesday night, there were only 10 players leaguewide on the COVID-19 reserve list. No Bears are currently in that category. The NFL has conducted more than 42,000 tests for COVID-19 in the last 15 days.
"We continue to be very pleased with where we are," Sills said. "We are seeing a really low rate of positives and the positive tests that we do see are overwhelmingly unconfirmed positives. That shows are teams are continuing to do a great job with their protocol adherence."
Sills called the development of a saliva test in research supported by the NBA a "very exciting development." The NFL isn't considering changes to its testing procedures right now, as Sills reiterated that accuracy and efficiency for testing results remain the No. 1 priorities. It remains to be seen if the league will continue daily testing after Sept. 5.
The next major hurdle for the NFL is preparing teams for road games at the start of the regular season, which kicks off Sept. 10 when the Texans play at the Chiefs. The Bears start the season Sept. 13 at Detroit. The league just sent extensive travel protocol instructions to the teams, information that will have to be reviewed before it is put in place. And the league will assign officials regionally to reduce their travel.
Vincent said the league formed an in-season competitive advisory committee of former general managers, head coaches and players in order to handle equity-related decisions that are certain to pop up during this unprecedented season.
"The purpose of this is to truly prevent a conflict of interest," Vincent said. "We have to be fluid and we don't want to compromise the integrity of the game."
What happens if a game cannot be played? Is it postponed? Is it canceled? There are so many unknowns that could crop up and the NFL is working through every imaginable scenario as the season fast approaches.
"We've ran through this exercise with the competition committee," Vincent said. "The things that we've been thinking about, and contingency planning, whether it's (an) outbreak, we want to look at changing of the venue, the possible postponement of a game. How does that work? We hope it doesn't occur but just based off of what we've seen, we have to have the flexibility.
"You may not have equal divisional games. How does that work as we look at playoff seeding? These are things that we've vetted with the competition committee. There are some additional questions now as we're seeing things evolve in other sports. These things could happen on the medical side. How do we respond? There are a lot of things that we have laid out and we will be meeting here in the coming days, weeks with the (new) committee to begin laying out what's our process, what's our cadence, how do we think about these things?"
