The NFL has always prioritized competitive fairness. That won’t be possible this season.

For there to be a season, participants and interested observers will have to accept that some things are likely to be random, unequal and unfair. With the NFL at the mercy of a virus that is rampant in parts of the country and has killed more than 153,000 in the United States, games could be rescheduled or canceled entirely. Teams could be relocated. Players and coaches who test positive face being quarantined, as do those who come into contact with infected individuals. If fans are allowed into games at all, crowd restrictions could vary from state to state and from city to city.

“Whatever is done has to be done with the bottom line being safety, not competition,” one person familiar with the NFL’s planning said. “Normally we go by what’s competitively fair. That can’t be the focus this year.”

The competitive imbalances are playing out now in Major League Baseball, another non-bubble league that is struggling to keep its season going. The schedule has been disrupted. The Toronto Blue Jays were dislodged from their home. Commissioner Rob Manfred acknowledged over the weekend it’s possible that not every team will complete its 60-game regular season. The standings and playoff spots would be determined by winning percentage, Manfred said, if teams play differing numbers of games.

It promises to be no different in the NFL.

The regular season, if it proceeds, could end up being 10 or 12 weeks instead of the planned 17. One team could end up playing 12 games while another plays 14 and another plays all 16, with the standings set by winning percentages. A team could end up playing more road games than home games. A team could end up having some fans permitted to attend home games — although that seems far-fetched now — while others do not. A team could have its starting quarterback in quarantine for a key game. Another could be without three starters on its offensive line.

“It’s going to be hard,” the person with knowledge of the league’s planning said. “You can say luck will factor into it, but it’s going to take so much effort. … Coaches will complain about anything, but they’ll also be the kings of adjustment.”

The challenges became evident even during the early days of training camp. Quarterbacks Matthew Stafford of the Detroit Lions and Gardner Minshew II of the Jacksonville Jaguars were placed on their teams’ covid-19 reserve lists, which are all-encompassing lists for players who tested positive for the virus and for those found through contact tracing to have been potentially exposed. Minshew and Stafford were activated Tuesday, with the Lions attributing Stafford’s stay on the list to a test result found to be a false positive. Philadelphia Eagles Coach Doug Pederson tested positive for the coronavirus, the team confirmed Sunday.

“Two starting NFL quarterbacks (Stafford, Minshew) and one head coach (Pederson) on Covid list,” former Green Bay Packers front-office executive Andrew Brandt wrote on Twitter on Monday. “It is happening in August and naive to think it won’t happen in the fall. Competitive balance will not be paramount in 2020.”

The NFL’s competition committee and the league office’s football operations department are studying scenarios by which a team would be shut down, an entire week of games would be postponed or play would be halted entirely. It’s not clear, however, whether the committee and the league will make concrete recommendations. Plenty of leeway could be given to Commissioner Roger Goodell to deal with whatever crisis might arise.

“Some people want to codify things,” said the person familiar with the league’s inner workings, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of a topic that few in the NFL are addressing publicly. “I think you probably need some guiding principles and then leave room for the commissioner to use his judgment.”

The outbreaks in MLB on two teams, the Miami Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals, have underscored the issues faced by leagues not operating in a bubble environment. The NFL’s plans are much like MLB’s, with teams slated to play in their home cities and in their own stadiums. NFL leaders have said that is subject to reevaluation and adjustment.

“People have to adapt,” the person with knowledge of the NFL’s planning said. “You have to deal with it. It’s no worse than anyone else is dealing with. It’s a pandemic.”

Source:WP