A breeze with the smell of freshly cut grass, hotdogs and the sweat of people cheering carries throughout the stadium. The National Football League (NFL) is back and ready to play, even during a pandemic.
On Thursday, Sept. 10, the NFL made the decision to begin playing again. However, one question remained in everyone’s mind: Is playing football during a pandemic worth the risk?
“We thought about this very long and very hard — what can we do to mitigate risk around our sport and around our clubs?” said NFL Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Allen Sills.
The NFL decided to have players, coaches and staff do a COVID-19 test every day of the week, except for the day they have games. According to The New York Times, “Over 44,000 tests were given to 8,349 players and team personnel. Only eight new positive cases — one among players — were confirmed.”
Even with such low numbers, the NFL needs to keep the environment safe for players and staff. This can be challenging given that players are constantly traveling for games. “As teams travel and increase potential for contact. Anyone who tests positive will be isolated and barred from visiting team facilities or having direct contact with players or personnel,” reported The New York Times.
But what happens if a player is infected? To ensure the team is still able to play, the NFL has taken measures to avoid game delays. They have expanded their game-day rosters by two players from the practice squad, reported The New York Times.They are also letting teams protect four practice squad players every week who can’t be signed to another team’s roster. If a player were to get COVID-19, the games should still stay evenly matched. In order to stay safe during the game, coaches and players wear face masks, gaiters or face shields on the sidelines during games.
During most football games, a big part of the atmosphere is the crowd, but this season, the crowd is a little different. Only six teams permitted fans during week one of the season. The number of fans in the stadium has been up to 20% capacity. There are no cheerleaders, mascots or sideline reports, nor are there pregame live performances of the national anthem. Since the players are so used to the noise of the crowd, the league is letting teams play league-issued canned crowd noises.
“I like where we’re at, but we’re going to monitor it day by day,” Jason Wright, the incoming president of the Washington Football Team said. As teams get deeper into the season the risk of contracting the virus has gone up and getting through the season is going to be challenging, but the NFL remains optimistic.