Are you worried about the upcoming National Football League season?
Me too.
Oh, the NFL’s administration — I’m looking at you, Commissioner Roger Goodell — is spinning it as if the 2020 campaign will be relatively normal.
Unless, of course, you view no preseason games as business as usual.
Then there’s the players union, often viewed as the financial advocate of its constituency. But not this time. The current overwhelming issue is player safety and that surely doesn’t make the NFLPA out to be the bad guys.
Indeed, it’s the league that comes off as insensitive and aloof.
The main problem is a lack of specifics … too much of this year’s schedule is shrouded in uncertainty.
Will the season start on time?
Are fans going to be in the stands?
What protective gear will be available to players during games?
Does the pandemic change each team’s schedule?
Will the campaign be halted if there’s a surge in positive tests?
WORSE, the NFL is enduring a terrible optic as some of its biggest stars are calling it out on health and safety issues.
On Sunday, in a Twitter blitz, Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, Drew Brees and J.J. Watt were among the high-profile performers appealing to the league to prioritize the well-being of its players.
Indeed, four Bills, safety Micah Hyde, wide receiver Stefon Diggs, guard Jon Feliciano and fullback Pat DiMarco joined the lobbying effort.
Diggs tweeted, “This is the ultimate safety and fairness issue. To be clear, we want to play, but we also want to protect ourselves and our families. As players we take health risks in this game every day. But we’ve never imagined having to take those risks to our families.”
Feliciano was even more pointed.
“The NFL is doing what they always do,” he tweeted. “They’re waiting for the last minute so they can try to put public pressure on the players. Just so you fans know, we’ve asked numerous questions, and a lot of them were flat-out ignored by the owners.”
Hyde added, “If the NFL doesn’t do their part to keep players healthy, there is no football in 2020. It’s that simple.”
To which, DiMarco concluded, “(We want to play), but not at the expense of our long-term health and the health of our families. We need the NFL to do their part to make this season as safe as possible for all players and treat us better than just a balance sheet.”
THEN, OF COURSE, there’s the Players’ Association demand, even without preseason games, of 45 days of preparation time before a regular-season game is played. That translates to 21 days of strength and conditioning work, 10 days of non-padded practice and 14 days of contract work.
NFL camps open next Tuesday. Forty five days later is Sept. 10, the day the Texans are supposed to play at Super Bowl champion Kansas City for the Thursday Night season opener.
However, that reckons without the mandated one day off for the players, which pushes the openers to the following week.
How will that disparity be handled?
The NFL seems to have no strategy, but rather deals in vague generalities that answer none of the major questions, a growing frustration for the ones who keep the league going … the players.
(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
