Less than four stand between us and what should be the start of the NFL regular season. The first kickoff is expected toward the beginning of September and the football league is determined, despite the global coronavirus pandemic, that everything will fall into place as planned. The upcoming schedule was released last Thursday, giving sports fans and sportsbooks something to look forward to, and no one wants to deviate from the current program. However, this doesn’t mean that the league isn’t ready to make changes if they aren’t absolutely necessary.
When NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell published the schedule last week, he made sure to leave himself a way out should he not be able to stick to his plan. As much as he hopes to have the first kickoff on September 10, which will find the defending Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Houston Texans, he realizes that it’s important to remain flexible. He added as a caveat in the schedule’s release, “We will be prepared to make adjustments as necessary, as we have during this offseason in safely and efficiently conducting key activities such as free agency, the virtual offseason program, and the 2020 NFL Draft.”
With the proposed lineup of games, there are no divisional matchups in the third or fourth weeks of the season. This is important because, should any changes be needed, these weeks can be eliminated without affecting teams’ playoff runs. The first four weeks of the season include two home games and two away games, and the elimination of Weeks 3 and 4 would still leave seven games at home and seven on the road for the regular season.
With a little bit of luck, it won’t be necessary to alter the schedule. It’s beginning to look more likely that, for the most part, the coronavirus saga will be under control by September. However, there is still the question of team practices that have to be worked out, or the upcoming season may look more like a comedy show than a professional sports ensemble.
It also remains to be seen whether or not fans will be allowed to attend games. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institutes for Health and the man leading the charge to combat the coronavirus, believes that it’s possible to put at least some fans in the stands. He told Peter King of Football Morning in America that there is still a chance that COVID-19 will regain strength later this year, but asserted, “I think it’s feasible that negative testing players could play to an empty stadium. Is it guaranteed? No way.” He added that it might be possible to have limited attendance, explaining that fans could fill “a third of the stadium or half the stadium so people could be six feet apart.”
