The National Football League may be one of the only professional sport leagues that is near normal this year. The NBA has the bubble in Orlando, the MLB has the shortened season with a possible bubble for the postseason, and the PGA tour and ATP (tennis) have cancelled some of their most important tournaments.
However, the NFL has stuck to their 17 week: 16 game schedule, there is no bubble so teams are traveling all over the country and there hasn’t been a hitch in the road yet. The only effect the pandemic has had on the league is limiting the number of fans, cancelling the Hall of Fame game and cancelling the whole preseason.
The same protocols we see in the other professional sports, college sports and even high school sports are in place for the NFL. We all know that many people have bent the rules when it comes to mask wearing and social distancing. The NFL has a hawk eye for violators of their protocols. After the first two weeks of the season, the NFL had fined coaches and teams near $2 million total for not following protocols. Kyle Shanahan was fined $100,000 for not wearing his mask at times and his team, the 49ers were given a $250,000 fine. These same fines came for Vic Fangio and the Denver Broncos, Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks, Sean Payton and the New Orleans Saints, and Jon Gruden with the Las Vegas Raiders.
NFL fined three head coaches – – Denver’s Vic Fangio, Seattle’s Pete Carroll and SF’s Kyle Shanahan – $100,000 each for not wearing masks Sunday, and each of their teams another $250,000, sources told ESPN.
So that’s $1.05 million dollars in fines for not wearing masks.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 22, 2020
While these coaches didn’t seem to cooperate with the league’s protocols, teams as a whole have been doing a great job at preventing the spread of the virus in their teams. The NFL introduced a wristband called a “Proximity Reading Device,” in which all members of the club must wear when they are at the facility, during practice and competition, and when traveling. This wristband allows for quick contact tracing. The NBA has done something similar with an optional ring that can detect fever, heart rate and any respiratory unusualness. The NBA and NFL are the two leagues that have minimized the spread.
NFL is Using Technology to Modernize Contact Tracing, Prevent Spread of COVID-19
The Denver Broncos took large measures when it came to sanitizing before and during the season. They bought a sanitizing machine, also called the “Misting Booth” that looks just like a metal detector at a security check. The machine would sanitize each player as they walked through.
Kudos to the NFL for being incredibly critical when it comes to wearing masks, sanitizing, etc. The measures have worked so far, but there are still 15 weeks left in the regular season.
Written by Kyle Moyer