With the doors of all NFL teams closing up on March 13, each team is now set to begin to open their doors back open, but with a twist. Teams’ headquarters have been open for about two weeks now with only 15 people allowed at each facility. The people that are reporting to the facilities for work are the head coaches, coaching staff, general managers, presidents and/or owners. Falcons Head Coach Dan Quinn is expected at Flowery Branch this Friday, June 12. Players are not set to report until mid July. Right around the time training camps open for all teams. This time last year I would have never thought I would be so excited to see Dan Quinn back at Flowery Branch. Wow, how times have changed.
Unlike baseball, which had to stop playing during the middle of spring training, football has had a better grasp of planning policies and procedures for the football season later this year. A rule that I saw just come down today is letting the rookies and veterans that are first year players on new teams start to use the facilities so those players can get acclimated with the new teams. Football is a year round sport now, even if they are not playing games right now. So staying away from the facilities I know has been difficult.
When players start to come back mid July, social distancing is going to have to take shape at the facilities. Lockers will need to be spread out and moved to comply with all social distancing. Temperature checks will need to be done at least once a day. Helmets and shoulder pads will need to be cleaned after every practice, this should have been done anyways.
There will also be no joints practices this year among teams. Falcons were set to scrimmage both the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills during training camp. Those scrimmages have been scratched. Teams will also have to hold their training camp practices at their headquarters. So this means that the Dallas Cowboys will hold training camp in Dallas and not in Oxnard, California.
All this is going to be an adjustment for all involved with each team, but it will be a welcome site for all including fans that haven’t had any sports since mid March.
There is no good time for a pandemic to hit, but since it hit in March and it was the offseason for the NFL, the league has had ample time to create policies and procedures and have them in place before the schedule kicks off Thursday, September 10 as the Super Bowl Champs Kansas City Chiefs hosts Houston Texans.
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