COVID-19 Cancels Ron in Richmond

Today was supposed to be a day and an opportunity for fans and media to hear directly from Washington Redskins Head Coach Ron Rivera a few days before free agency & the NFL's new league year started.

His first - as more than just an influential head coach. Make no mistake. Rivera is Batman and Kyle Smith is Robin.

Now, because of the coronavirus concerns and pandemic - both events are cancelled and a reschedule date is to be determined.

We already knew on Wednesday afternoon about the event for premium Redskins fans in Landover, but late Wednesday night, a Redskins public relations spokesman informed members of the media that the event with Rivera and the Mayor of Richmond was cancelled as well.

The Redskins (correctly) cited the non-stop moving target that is COVID-19 and the NBA suspending league operations as a completely understandable and correct explanation as to why this event was going to be cancelled.

Does it suck from a football perspective? Of course. Would I have loved to pick Rivera's brain in person? Yes.

Does anything really matter at this point? No.

Extending this further - NFL Insider Jason LaCanfora put this tweet forward which certainly makes sense.

Hearing from execs from NFL teams who are shocked team headquarters are still open and not all work from home. Many think it only makes sense to bump league year and all events back a few weeks. "It's 2020. We have the technology. What the hell are we doing here?"
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) March 12, 2020

As LaCanfora points out through his source: "Many think it only makes sense to bump league year and all events back a few weeks."

There's no telling what the NFL will do here, but it only seems reasonable at this point that they could temporarily table the NFL league year (free agency) back a week or maybe two.

With the NBA suspending their operations, the NCAA banning all fans from their men's and women's tournaments and the NHL likely to follow suit - it's hard to imagine that the NFL is going to trot out their offseason Super Bowl next week when they don't have to.

Chris Russell is the Publisher of RedskinsReport.com & Sports Illustrated's Washington Redskins channel. He can be heard on 106.7 The FAN in the Washington D.C. area and world-wide on Radio.com. Chris also hosts the "Locked on Redskins" Podcast and can be read via subscription to Warpath Magazine. You can e-mail Chris at russellmania09@Gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @Russellmania621.

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