Play Callers brings sports experts, social media influencers, fantasy league champs and fans together to provide context and opinion on the most pressing sports issues. In the inaugural edition, they answer a much discussed question: will coronavirus delay the NFL week 1 kickoff?
Is there a chance that coronavirus will delay the NFL Week 1 kickoff? Hasn’t America suffered enough already?!
The NBA season looks like it might be over and the 2020 Olympics have been delayed. Some think the NFL could suffer the same fate.
NFL executive vice president Jeff Pash stated, “our planning, our expectation, is fully directed at playing a full season starting on schedule and having a full regular season and full set of playoffs.”
He may be right, but what are the Play Callers drawing up when it comes to start of the NFL season?
The play callers:
Will coronavirus delay the NFL week 1 kickoff?
Cheyenne Hollis, The Touchback
Saturday, August 29. That’s the day to watch. It is the scheduled kickoff of the college football season with seven games, including Notre Dame facing Navy in Dublin, set to take place. There is no way the NFL can play less than two weeks later if these games are cancelled or postponed. It’s just not realistic to think everything would change in 12 days. Remember, the NFL season starts on a Thursday.
I originally believed the NFL season would start as planned, but then this happened. Putting politics aside, has Donald Trump said anything about the COVID-19 situation that he didn’t have to backtrack on? I mean, how’d that Easter proclamation workout? Week one of the NFL season will kick off eventually, but it won’t be on September 10.
Ari Koslow, Fantasy.footballexpert
I’m cautiously optimistic there will be a 2020 NFL season, but I do believe there is a good chance the start of the season will be delayed. Ultimately, it will come down to when/if the NBA, MLB and NHL seasons return. If those major sports seasons are cancelled, it is very possible the NFL will feel pressured into cancelling its season as they wouldn’t want to be the only sport going on during this pandemic.
If those sports are able to return sometime between June-August, there is a better chance we could get a shortened season this year. The reality is that this virus is going to push back every NFL offseason program from rookie camps to OTA’s to training camp, so you would think the start of the season will have to be pushed back for that reason if there does end up being a season at all.
Peyton Bennett, Creator of WTF Stats
I don’t think the coronavirus will delay the start of the season. But I do think it will drastically affect the offseason process leading up to the season. Preseason games won’t be the same. The draft is going to be unusual too.
Where the big effect is going to be is training camp. If these new players don’t have the time to work together as a team, the beginning of the season will be sloppier than usual.
Greg Demko, All Things Fantasy Football
No, I do not think the coronavirus will delay the NFL season.
When the president meets with the heads of major sports leagues, usually it is an important meeting that had a lot of preparation. The government and health experts from the CDC likely put in a lot of time to make sure the information they provided was accurate.
Rohun Rajpal, @the.starting.eleven on IG
It is truly too early to tell whether the NFL regular season will start on time, but despite Trump’s briefing to the NFL owners which expressed optimism, I personally doubt it.
Given that the season starts in the beginning of September, and that multiple major sporting events scheduled as late as the end of July have already been cancelled (before the virus has even reached its peak), it’s hard for me to imagine the NFL being any different, unless there are serious restrictions on fan attendance.
Matthew Trader, Fantasy Legend / Trader Real Estate Entertainment
I honestly just don’t know. The situation is so fluid right now. Personally, I am still crossing my fingers that the NBA season has an ending!
Andrew Davis, The Touchback
Coronavirus will not delay the NFL week 1 kickoff. That said, nothing will be the same.
The NFL will certainly implement rapid, game-day testing for the safety of its players, but I can’t imagine that masses of newly unemployed fans will be shelling out full-priced admission only to risk packed stadiums.
If the NFL wants to kick-off on schedule, they better get remarkably creative with stadium seating, savvy promotions and premium home viewing features. The league will bleed revenue regardless.
