A Dallas Cowboys helmet at AT&T Stadium on October 14, 2018 in Arlington, Texas. Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
Dr. Anthony Fauci says it's "very hard to see how" football could be played this fall.
This comes as the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs are scheduled to kick off the 2020 regular season at home on September 10 against the Houston Texans. Players are due to NFL training camp on July 22 with the Hall of Fame Game taking place in Canton, Ohio, on August 6.
And the NCAA, which began to allow voluntary athletics activities in all Division I sports this month, on Wednesday approved a plan for summer athletic activities and preseason practice for the upcoming 2020 college football season, which is slated to get underway on August 29.
“Unless players are essentially in a bubble – insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day – it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall. If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tells CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
On Monday, several Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans players tested positive for coronavirus, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero. None of the players were in the teams' facilities, and both teams followed proper health protocols, per the report.
When asked how the positive tests impact the league planning in terms of beginning training camps and the upcoming season, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told ESPN on Monday, "We expect we are going to have positive tests. That is part of the increased testing that we will be going through and that is something that we just want to make sure that our protocols are working and to date. We are seeing very positive reactions in the sense that we are making sure we respond quickly, protect the personnel that may be impacted by that and others that may be in contact with them.���
In a memo in May, Goodell provided protocols on a gradual reopening of team facilities, starting with a limited amount of employees, and later moving on to players. The league expanded the reopening earlier this month to allow coaches to return to training facilities.
In May, the NFL canceled all planned international games due to the pandemic, moving them instead to the US. The league had previously planned to play four games in London and one game in Mexico City.
If both NFL and college football seasons are able to finish, the Super Bowl will be played on February 7 in Tampa, Florida. The College Football Playoff National Championship game takes place on January 11 in Miami Gardens, Florida.
barley_wine on June 18th, 2020 at 19:01 UTC »
When I was growing up (I'm 40 now), my dad told me that if the class ever taught that evolution happened, I was to get up and walk out of the classroom. I'd get swats if I ever made below a B, but in this case I could get an F with no consequences.
Now, 30 years later he's convinced that Covid was created by Bill Gates and the Chinese to sell vaccinations / do implants or something, I just ignore him at this point. Apparently how else do you explain that Bill Gates warned about a flu like virus 5 years ago...
We have a serious anti-science bias in the US.
The_bruce42 on June 18th, 2020 at 17:22 UTC »
This is a much older problem than Covid-19.
emsam466 on June 18th, 2020 at 16:17 UTC »
Why use tested theories performed by highly educated scientists when you can just go by your gut? TOTALLY makes sense.