The Hall of Fame Game, which kicks off the NFL preseason, could feature an empty stadium this year. The matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys is currently scheduled for Aug. 6 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. But with the coronavirus pandemic still sweeping the nation, the annual event could now be held without fans in the stands, according to Ohio governor, Mike DeWine.
“As much as I hate to say this, because we’ve all been looking forward to that and I know how much it means to the Canton area and the Stark County area and, really, across the country, it’s a great, great event that we’ve been looking forward to, [but] having a crowd that size is highly unlikely,” DeWine said Tuesday via WKYC-TV. “Certainly, it could not occur today. It would be very dangerous to do it today.”
The NFL is currently doing everything in its power to reopen team facilities, and while some staff and coaches have been welcomed back, players are not yet able to return. The league and the NFLPA are still working to provide protocols to ensure safety measures and in-person minicamps have been canceled throughout June. Reports also indicate there are discussions to shorten the preseason all together.
“Again, we have to see where we are at that point, but that’s a large crowd, a lot of people together,” DeWine continued. “These are the things that we’ve talked about all the way through this as we open Ohio up and we get back to work and we get back to doing the things that we like, probably the last things that are going to be able to be open are the big crowds, particularly when you have big crowds that are close together. So we have to continue to look at it and make decisions as we move forward, but if the question was, ‘could that even occur today?’ the answer would be, ‘no.’”
This story is continuing to develop.
