Amid uncertainty in the face of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, American sports are on the verge of a return. For the NFL, the timing was fortunate — the league narrowly avoided the explosion of COVID-19 cases and has been given a luxury available to none of the other major sports leagues: time.
With more time and notice than any of the other leagues, the NFL has closely monitored the failures and successes of other sports leagues as they’ve tried to navigate their way to a safe return to play and it seems as though the NFL is going to forge ahead with their return to the field this fall. But the limitations in the meantime have put the NFL teams in a challenging spot — they’re very much behind in face time versus a regular offseason. July 28th looms as a big date for the return of the majority of team camps, but we now have some additional information regarding when the Dolphins will be able to return to the facility.
According to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, the first big date for players in Davie comes a week ahead of the scheduled start of camp.
“The Dolphins’ 21 rookies are expected to be permitted to report to the team facility on July 21, seven days before the start of training camp July 28,” wrote Jackson.
“Miami’s four quarterbacks and every other QB under contract can report to their team facilities on July 23, according to Carolina coach Matt Rhule.”
If this is indeed fact, we’re now less than three weeks from rookies reporting to team facilities en masse and the beginning of the process that will hopefully see the league back in action on schedule in early September. There are many unanswered questions relating to training camp and the NFL’s return to action, but it seems as though when players can get into the building is no longer among them.
