NFL Announces Plans for Reopening of Team Facilities
It’s been more than two months since professional team sports have been put on hold in the United States. While NASCAR returns to the track this weekend in Darlington, other team sports are still looking for ways to get back to normal. The NBA allowed team facilities to reopen last week, giving players the ability to work out in familiar venues. Meanwhile, the NHL is working toward that goal in the near future as well as both those leagues try to get back to complete their seasons. On the flip side, the NFL has done all their offseason activities virtually, making things a little bit easier for them. Now, we have another milestone of sorts as things attempt to get back to some set of normalcy.
Roger Goodell announced Friday night that teams will be able to reopen their team facilities on Tuesday, bringing the two-plus month run of having them closed to an end. In the announcement, Goodell made the statement that the teams may reopen facilities if they meet a set of parameters that have already been put together. In addition, teams must also have permission from state and local governments in order to open up and get back to a semblance of what usually transpires. It marked a complete 180 from the league’s premise last month, where the thought process was centered around not reopening until all 32 NFL teams could open their facilities.
Under the plan, no players other than ones that are rehabilitating injuries that had been doing so prior to the COVID-19 pandemic would be allowed in the building. That means that rookies and such would not be in the building but a guy like Ben Roethlisberger, who is coming back from elbow surgery after playing in just two games last season, could be in the facility. No more than half the non-player staff, up to a maximum of 75 people, can be in the facility per day. There are no coaches allowed in the facilities other than strength and conditioning coaches. Even those individuals must be working with rehabilitating players: if not, they too are banned from the building.
Having a lack of coaches in the building makes sense at this stage of the game. While there are plenty of teams that are going to be able to open up on Tuesday, there are others who are under stricter guidelines at the moment. That would make for an unfair balance of potential training, practice or other coaching staff/player interactions that would not be accessible for other teams. This was something that Mike Tomlin, coach of the Steelers, brought up last week. As it turns out, the Steelers will be able to open their facility Tuesday under Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s “yellow phase” of getting things back to normal. Under that concept, that means that the Eagles would be able to get back to business as well.
With that said, there are teams that are going to be unable to return on Tuesday. New Jersey has extended their public health emergency for the pandemic through at least June 6. That would knock the Jets and Giants out of the equation. Ditto for the Bills as governor Andrew Cuomo just extended the PAUSE act in that state until June 13. The Redskins have their facilities in Virginia, which currently has their stay-at-home order in effect until June 10. Illinois is shut down until May 31, which knocks the Bears out of the mix, while Michigan has their stay-at home order in play until May 28, hampering the Lions. Places like California and Washington are other open in parts of the state, which could impede teams like the Seahawks, 49ers, Rams and Chargers. That could potentially affect nearly a third of the teams in the league.
For those teams that are unable to open Tuesday, Goodell stated that “Clubs unable to meet these criteria on May 19 may reopen their facilities on the earliest date thereafter on which they are able to meet the criteria.”
One can only hope that the day when all the facilities can open comes sooner rather than later for all the teams involved. After all, we’re less than four months before the season opener and the quicker that things get back to normal, the better.