Giants Will Play First Game in Front of Fans This Sunday Despite Surging COVID-19 Cases
Empty stadiums have become a staple of the sports world in 2020, an unfortunate result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But for the first time this season, the Giants will be playing in front of a crowd, albeit not a full capacity one, when they visit the Dallas Cowboys Sunda.
The Cowboys are one of four teams that will have fans in attendance this week, as they've permitted up to 21,000 fans to attend home games at AT&T Stadium this year.
"I'm just excited," Giants head coach Joe Judge said about making his NFL head coaching debut in front of a live crowd. "There's a part of football that we obviously all want fans there. There's a different kind of energy home and away. But I think both energies really add to the atmosphere and the environment."
Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, who has coached two games for the Cowboys this year at AT&T Stadium in front of fans, shares a similar sentiment to Judge but added that the presence of fans in the building doesn't necessarily create an advantage and is beneficial for both teams.
"I’ll be honest with you, I think it’s good for everybody because it’s not loud enough to create a crowd noise advantage for our team," McCarthy said.
"I think it really creates a better atmosphere for both teams. Just to compare having fans to having no fans, it’s clearly night and day. I think our fans do a great job, but I think the offenses of the opponent still have an ability to communicate."
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been a vocal advocate for allowing fans to attend games in 2020 since the onset of training camp, despite the Cowboys' home state of Texas still dealing with surging COVID-19 cases.
"I'm confident that we have very educated situation and that our fans can come and have a safe experience at our stadium along with of course our players having the safety they're required on the football," Jones said back on August 12, according to NFL.com.
"The NFL can be exciting, when I say exciting it can be an inspirational part of how we address COVID, not only the remainder of this year but as we go into '21."
According to the New York Times, Texas has had over 811,000 cases of COVID-19, with as many as 4,412 new cases reported on October 6.
Cases have even manifested among NFL players recently as multiple personnel, including players, within the Tennessee Titans organization, and Patriots quarterback Cam Newton and cornerback Stephon Gilmore have tested positive for COVID-19.
Fan attendance at sporting events has been left up to each state's governor. But even then, teams who get the green light to host some fans don't necessarily follow through out of concern for public health and safety.
In the Giants' case, they cannot welcome fans into MetLife Stadium under current governor executive orders. Giants co-owner John Mara admitted back on September 3 that he believed that by allowing some teams to have fans at games while others could not, would be competitively unfair.
"It's not necessarily going to be competitively fair in the sense that some teams that are going to have fans in attendance and some teams are not," he said.
"Certain areas of the country are going to be a little more liberal about allowing people in the building and that's something we're just going to have to accept and move forward."
