NFL Cuts Preseason in Half Due to Coronavirus

Coronavirus continues to ravage the sports world. Today, the league decided to slash the preseason in half due to their concerns on player safety regarding COVID-19. According to Pro Football Talk, teams will only play two games in August instead of four. After the alteration to the schedule, teams will now play their second and third preseason games, as the first and fourth week games were the ones that got taken away.

This is just the latest of the changes the NFL has made to try and create a safe playing environment for their players in the light of the global pandemic. Even though the current plan is for teams to play in their regular season home stadiums for the season, Dr. Anthony Fauci has shed some grim light on how the season might actually go:

“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… 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.”

This is some potentially devastating news for fans of the NFL everywhere, as well as the owners and players of the league – who might sustain devastating financial losses if the season is cancelled. The most important thing to remember as fans of the sport, though, is that if we are smart about how we handle this virus, (washing hands, staying socially distant, and not leaving our houses unless necessary) we might just be able to have a football season in 2020.