Football is right around the corner as the college football season will start at the end of August while the NFL regular season will begin in September. However, is it possible the college and NFL seasons won’t happen this fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic? Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tells CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, it’s possible football won’t happen this year if the teams don’t do this one thing.
“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,” Fauci said. “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.” That’s not what fans want to hear, especially since sports being shut down for the last three months. NFL’s chief medical officer Allen Sills heard what Fauci had to say and said it’s something the league will look into.
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“Dr. Fauci has identified the important health and safety issues we and the NFL Players Association, together with our joint medical advisors, are addressing to mitigate the health risk to players, coaches and other essential personnel.” Sills went on today they are working on “a comprehensive and rapid-result testing program and rigorous protocols that call for a shared responsibility from everyone inside our football ecosystem. He also said the NFL “will make adjustments as necessary to meet the public health environment as we prepare to play the 2020 season as scheduled with increased protocols and safety measures for all players, personnel and attendees.”
When the coronavirus pandemic began, the NFL wasn’t impacted by it in a big way due to teams not playing. However, there have been more cases reported as several Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys players including Ezekiel Elliott tested positive for COVID-19. And it was recently reported an assistant coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers contracted the virus with two others in quarantine. As of now, the NFL is moving forward with starting the season on Sept. 10. However, it’s possible the preseason could be shortened since it begins on Aug. 6.
