Bradley Chubb Expresses Faith in NFL's Plan to Reopen Team Facilities in Safest Way Possible
As the Denver Broncos' coaches have drifted back to the team's UC Health Training Center, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell issued a new memo to all 32 teams on Monday. The NFL's strong response to the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a large-scale process as the league works to mitigate the risk of contracting the virus as much as possible.
Some critics have levied accusations of greed at the NFL for its dogged decision to maintain its offseason calendar (free agency/draft) as much as was possible but Goodell deserves credit for remaining steadfast and providing unflinching, detailed direction and leadership during the crisis.
The major focus for the NFL is to protect the safety of the players and Broncos' star pass rusher Bradley Chubb is one high-profile figure who is growing in confidence that the league leadership is doing the right thing by them.
“To be honest, playing football is like my number one priority right now because of the whole injury thing,” Chubb told the AP's Arnie Stapleton on June 6. “But I feel like when it comes to the Coronavirus, the NFL has great leaders in place to make sure we’re going to be back in the safest way possible. I know these guys are going to come up with a solution.”
Goodell’s most recent memo further bolster's Chubb’s confidence in the NFL’s top decision-makers working to chart a safe passage through these tumultuous and risky times. In fact, Goodell's new memo offers up detailed safety procedures and protocols, so much so that teams finding enough time to implement them might prove to be the biggest difficulty of all.
Under new safety rules, the players will be expected to maintain a distance of six feet between each other in their own locker rooms. Weight room activities will be limited to 15 people at a time, with allocated time slots to fit in everybody safely and responsibly.
Players will also be seeing a lot more of the equipment staff who will be disinfecting all their gear after each on-field activity. Water bottles and towels will become the exclusive property of individual players and can no longer be shared around.
These are changes that will require a much more structured environment and will present a number of fundamental changes in the day-to-day habits and rhythms of NFL players. This offseason has seen the rapid implementation of virtual meetings and the league has made it clear that they want this new way of conducting team business to continue.
Actual physical meetings will incorporate the wearing of masks, while organizing meetings out of doors where possible, and maintaining all social distancing measures that have become routine of late.
These new guidelines lay the framework for the full-scale return of players to team facilities. Goodell addressed the biggest step to climb in that stage of the process by explaining exactly how full-scale COVID-19 testing will take place.
48 hours before returning to team facilities, players will have a nasal swab and antibody tests made available to them. Should they test positive, this will be disclosed to the league and isolation will take place. Local health guidelines will be followed to track and trace, therefore minimizing the chances of further infection passing to the general public and the league.
Monday’s comprehensive road map laid out by the Commissioner will still come to rely on full cooperation of teams across the board. It will, at minimum, come as some comfort to the Broncos that a set of rules has been put in place for the organization to implement and follow so that the team can get back to the business of playing football.
This blueprint has allowed Head Coach Vic Fangio and his staff to return to the UC Health Center to intensify preparations for the 2020 season. Last Tuesday, Fangio shared his misgivings that the NFL is now looking at mid-July at the earliest before the players would be reassembled together.
“I don’t make that decision. The NFL does," Fangio said during his virtual presser. "Right now, we won’t be on the field until training camp. If that changes between now and then, then we will adjust.”
Obeying and following the NFL's staged process to return will give the Broncos the best shot at ensuring safety and it will require patience and common sense — if it is to run smoothly. The path to fully reopening the NFL and playing the 2020 season on-schedule has been laid and in what has been a very troubled 2020. that's the best news Broncos Country will have had in quite a while.
Follow Keith on Twitter @KeithC_NFL and @MileHighHuddle.
