How the NFL is Dealing with the Pandemic and Many More Grievances
by Jakey Gelman
When the first wave of the coronavirus struck the U.S. in March of 2020, America hit the pause button. Schools went remote, businesses started to shut down, all sports leagues got postponed, and the world was put into a position that had not been endured in more than a century. As the months flew by, the outcome of America’s future was seriously questioned. Racial injustice, COVID-19, the presidential election and much more occupied the minds of Americans.
During all of this, sports gradually began to re-enter our lives, as they had been put on the back burner for the past few months, due to the pandemic and the upcoming election. The NBA and NHL employed a “bubble” format, while MLB made several scheduling changes that helped ensure a successful season. Despite all of these efforts, these three major sports still faced major roadblocks throughout the journey. For MLB, early positive tests from the Marlins and Cardinals put the already truncated season into serious doubt. The NBA faced a racial backlash from many of the league's premier players, which almost led to a midseason cancellation.
Lost in all of this mess was that the NFL had yet to start their season. They were the only sports league that did not get affected by the virus early on, which gave them an advantage in starting the 2020-2021 season. However, going into the beginning of August the virus raged on, which forced the NFL to cut all of its preseason games. The cancellations bled into the early portions of the year, as many games had to be rescheduled, which eventually led to a Tuesday Night Football game. That was only the third time in league history that football was played on a Tuesday. (Historic events continue to transpire in 2020.) With many teams having to switch up practices and publicly complaining about the scheduling, it finally seemed as if sports would bow out. But once again, it was able to drive through, persevere, and continue the season.
“As we head towards the final stretch of the season, the NFL has taken control, and, luckily for all of us, there will be much more football to come.”
On October 4th, there was major news that the game between the Tennessee Titans and the Pittsburgh Steelers had been rescheduled. (It ended up being played two weeks later.) This was a huge blow to the NFL, considering this was a game between two undefeated teams. Then came more bad news on the same day. The “battle” between the Chiefs and Patriots turned out to be a snoozefest when Patriots quarterback Cam Newton tested positive for corona. Then another Chiefs and Titans game had to be rescheduled due to prolonged positive testing. This would lead to ripples throughout the league as a team playing the Steelers in week 6 would now have to be rescheduled because the Titans had a player test positive. These are the little miscues that can cost a season. Once the tests started piling up, the NFL enforced rules such as that if you were not wearing a mask on the sideline, you would be fined 100,000 dollars.
With these rules in place, the NFL started to take steps in the right direction. For the next few weeks, there were no COVID tests, and the rescheduled games happened at their appropriate time. There were even some high-profile games sandwiched in. Such as Ravens vs. Chiefs and Titans vs. Steelers.
As we head towards the final stretch of the season, the NFL has taken control, and, luckily for all of us, there will be much more football to come.
