Dr. Fauci: Football season will be hard to pull off unless players are in a bubble

[Soko]

Wonder if they could sell seats with a caveat. Like every time you buy a seat, it blanks out the next maybe 5 seats or so next to you and a few in front/back. Maybe limit 4 in a close proximity for people of the same household. Shut down majority of the vendors. Make them wear all wear masks. 

Not sure that would be profitable when being weighed with running the stadium (security, entertainment, staff, food, etc.) but it’d help a little, in my mind. Competitive football with no fans is a weird combo, for me. More so than fan-less basketball or fan-less baseball. Would be a shame if they had to go the whole year with zero spectators in the stadium, but if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes.

[THE DUKE]

If they do end up playing with no fans, they should pump in crowd noise so teams don't have to change their calls and audibles every week with teams being able to clearly hear each call on video and analyze what happened.

[tyler735]

I think a season will be possible, but one with fans is probably doubtful at this time. MLS is doing a month long league wide tournament in Orlando next month where all the teams will be at the Disney Sports Complex and the players will be pretty much on lock down during the tournament with frequent Covid testing. It will be interesting to see how it plays out as it will likely influence other American sports leagues decide to proceed. If it works well, it may be best the NFL tries to do something similar. I'd imagine the likelihood of a watered down product would drastically increase if the NFL doesn't implement similar rules having players pretty much quarantined away from the general public and have teams playing games in the same location as it seems more likely players contract it if these measures aren't taken, which leads to the concerns of a team being without some key players throughout the season.

[FinSting]

2 hours ago, August4th said:

this is about to be the oddest season since the merger.

I watched some of the '87 strike season games... like an episode of Twilight Zone. You recognize the uniform but not the names on back of the jersey. Now that was odd. 

[Blackstar12]

Phillip Rivers is used to playing in empty stadiums he has a secret advantage. 

Edited June 18, 2020 by Blackstar12

[Siv]

MLS could be a good measuring stick. If their idea works, follow suit. If it fails, cancel the season.

I think it fails regardless if they try to play the game normal. 

[zgrande]

1 hour ago, THE DUKE said:

Herd immunity is never going to happen if everyone is in a bubble until a vaccine comes out, and even then it's not a guarantee. 

Herd immunity without a vaccine is a pipe dream and not likely to result only from exposure to COVID-19. But trying on a large scale (e.g., ignoring social distancing and stay-at-home) would certainly overload our healthcare system and cause a huge spike in deaths and probably new or extended workplace closures causing economic and productivity losses.

Is football worth that? No way, even though I desperately want good, live sports to watch.

So I think the NFL needs to be extremely careful. I am not saying a "bubble" is the best answer and cancelling the season seems extreme, but certainly no fans at games. They also need to make sure players are comfortable with the decision and have options that are reasonable if somebody chooses not to play for health or personal reasons.

Per the Mayo Clinic (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/herd-immunity-and-coronavirus/art-20486808):

"...there are some major problems with relying on community infection to create herd immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19. First, it isn't yet clear if infection with the COVID-19 virus makes a person immune to future infection....

...Even if infection with the COVID-19 virus creates long-lasting immunity, a large number of people would have to become infected to reach the herd immunity threshold. Experts estimate that in the U.S., 70% of the population — more than 200 million people — would have to recover from COVID-19 to halt the epidemic. If many people become sick with COVID-19 at once, the health care system could quickly become overwhelmed. This amount of infection could also lead to serious complications and millions of deaths...." (at the current mortality rate, that means ~5 million deaths in the above scenario).

[Shanedorf]

It takes hundreds and hundreds of support people to put on an NFL game from Field crews to TV people to medical people to IT to equipment guys
Let's just look at one of those groups as an example of the massive challenge the NFL is facing:

The Refs.
Currently the Ref crews come from all over the US, traveling through airports, breathing airplane air on their way to the games. They also have families and some of them have "real" jobs where they would interact with other employees. Then each week they get a new assignment and travel off to a new city for the game. This represents an immense infection risk for the players on the field and visa versa.

The Refs will blow their whistles for 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon, spewing their spittle into the air in close proximity to the players.
How will you control this ? How will the Refs handle players spitting (illegal in 2020) Will there be a 5 or 15 yard penalty for illegal expectoration ? 

The Refs will have to be in the same "bubble" of testing and protocols and if they test positive, they will be removed. But that creates another issue around having enough qualified subs ready and flying those subs to each game brings additional infection risk.

It also means you might be getting crews that aren't used to working together and potentially back-up refs calling your favorite game.
We've already seen what happens with back- up refs during their strike a few years back and it wasn't seamless. The epic whining we hear about Reffing already will only be exacerbated under these pandemic conditions.

Many of these concerns apply to the other support people required to put on an NFL game and each one of them introduces additional risk to the game and to the players/coaches in completing the 2020 season as scheduled.

Removing the fans is only a tiny part of what needs to be done in order to have a 6 month season in the middle of pandemic

[BleedTheClock]

I don’t think we will have football this year. Something will happen that sets it back too far, methinks. A large-scale outbreak from 1 team is all it will take to shut the team down. Sad that had to happen to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs thanks to @Kirill’s jinx. 

[NJerseypaint]

24 minutes ago, BleedTheClock said:

I don’t think we will have football this year. Something will happen that sets it back too far, methinks. A large-scale outbreak from 1 team is all it will take to shut the team down. Sad that had to happen to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs thanks to @Kirill’s jinx. 

One HC getting COVID and it's probably all going to be shut down. Most of the coaching personnel are old and out of shape - traits that make you very vulnerable to COVID.

[Ray Reed]

Why don’t the have all the players do a chicken-pox like party now, in June/July, so that they recover in the next 3/4 weeks and are ready for camps in July/August? Instead of random pockets of players just continuing to get it throughout the entire season?

Im being somewhat serious on that too

 

 

[TecmoSuperJoe]

Just cancel the season. 

[Deadpulse]

2 hours ago, Ray Reed said:

Why don’t the have all the players do a chicken-pox like party now, in June/July, so that they recover in the next 3/4 weeks and are ready for camps in July/August? Instead of random pockets of players just continuing to get it throughout the entire season?

Im being somewhat serious on that too

 

 

because there is no evidence that would help at all

[Xmad]

2 hours ago, Ray Reed said:

Why don’t the have all the players do a chicken-pox like party now, in June/July, so that they recover in the next 3/4 weeks and are ready for camps in July/August? Instead of random pockets of players just continuing to get it throughout the entire season?

Im being somewhat serious on that too

 

 

That's not how it works.

That's not how any of this works.

Covid19 has killed 100,000+ Americans you don't just get it and recover, some people have lasting damage, some people will never recover but are still alive, some people make it out fine.

[jebrick]

8 hours ago, Danger said:

Test players hours before the games. Play without fans. 

You're good to go.

You do not get results for several days.  Getting the results before the games would work but what happens when 30 players on a team come down with it?  That team is down for 2 weeks