Football season is set to start in about a month, but the majority of people in the country believe college football and NFL will be put on hold until the coronavirus pandemic is under control. According to a recent Harris Poll (via USA Today), only 32 percent think the NFL will have a season while 24 percent believe college football will happen. The Harris Poll surveyed 1,970 American adults this past weekend.
And it’s not just football Americans are concerned about. The Harris Poll also reported only 29 percent believe the NBA will be able to finish the season, while 45 percent believe MLB will be able to play its 60-game schedule, which starts on Thursday. The NBA will resume its season on July 30 with 22 teams being in a bubble in Orlando.
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“America craves a return to normalcy, and the sports leagues need the fans as much as the fans need to hear the crack of a bat or see a trophy being raised,” John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll, said to USA Today via email. “But even with quarantine bubbles and daily testing, Americans think the virus may have the final say on if we crown a World Series Champion or see the start of a normal football season this fall.”
The NFL season is set to being on September 10. Players are starting to report to training camp to get ready for the season, but there will likely be no preseason games played since there’s wasn’t a physical offseason program this past spring. Over the weekend, NFL players went to social media to express their concern for reporting to camp without a plan in place.
“We want to play,” Houston Texans star J.J. Watt wrote on Twitter. “We still have not been granted the full and proper training camp acclimation period necessary as recommended by the media and training staff. We still do not know if there will be daily testing, every other day testing, etc.”
As for college football, the season is slated to start at the end of August, but some schools and conferences have already canceled or altered their football seasons and more will likely do the same. And while the Harris Poll didn’t ask about high school football, that’s also another sport where delays are happening with it being state-by-state process.
