NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith implicitly roasted President Trump on Friday while fighting back against the conventional thinking that NFL players and the league should be able to just power through this coronavirus pandemic and be fine.
"Slogans and wishful thinking haven't led our country through this pandemic, and it will not lead football on any level through this pandemic," Smith said on a video conference call with national media.
NFLPA president J.C. Tretter, a center on the Cleveland Browns, said a major question the union has for the league is: "How safe is it to start back up a football season at this moment with locations in this country where teams are located going through giant spikes in this virus?"
And Tretter stressed that the union believes the "economics can be taken care of" but "the priority is health and safety" of the players and their families, and they can't find solutions to the money until they're satisfied everyone will be safe.
Rams offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth told a story about a family member who attended a seemingly harmless lunch, traveled with Whitworth's family, and tested positive for coronavirus.
Subsequently, Whitworth, his wife, and his four children also tested positive. And then so did his wife's parents, whom they'd visited and traveled with, and his wife's father was hospitalized.
Whitworth's father-in-law thankfully was discharged from the hospital a few days ago, but his story highlighted how fragile and difficult this situation will be to manage from both the players' and clubs' perspectives if and when football starts.
NFL teams are allowed to ask players to report on time anyway, though, per the collective bargaining agreement. And the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs _ whose regular-season opener is days earlier than the rest of the league _ are already asking rookies to report on Monday.
Smith granted that the league's owners "have the exclusive right of when (the business) opens, closes, what the hours are, etc. The CBA dictates wages, hours, working conditions, and generally and explicitly we've made provisions, being in a position to improve the IDRPs (Infectious Disease Emergency Response Plans) for the teams."
He said "the role of the union is to hold them accountable (on) whether it is safe to open training camp now."
Tretter emphasized, in the face of the NFL trying to make players report on time, that every decision that is made without taking the long-term goal of getting a full season into place sets the 2020 season up for "failure."
