NFL Reveals Protocols Covering Players’ Return to Team Facilities Ahead of Training Camp

Here are the relevant details along with some scenarios of how the Giants could alter their practices to comply.

We’re still a long way before NFL teams can officially open their 2020 training camps, but the league is at least trying to get all 32 clubs ready for that possibility.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent out a memo Monday to all 32 clubs outlining a set of COVID-19 safety protocols developed to allow for the return of players and staff to team facilities for training camps, which can begin opening on July 28.

The following are some key highlights from the multipage memo.

*Practice and stadium playing fields and sidelines, locker rooms, training rooms, and medical exam areas; meal and meeting rooms, lounge areas and weight rooms have been deemed as restricted areas.

Only personnel whose responsibilities warrant them being in such areas will be granted access.

Such personnel will be classified according to a three-tier system, which reflects the necessity of their presence in these restricted areas. All personnel will be required to wear a credential displaying their assigned tiers.

Tier 1 personnel includes players, coaches, and trainers, with a maximum of 60 Tier 1 personnel designated, not including players.

Tier 2 consists of up to 20 other employees, such as general managers, football operations personnel, and video staff.

Tier 3 is limited to 45 employees and will consist of those who won’t need close contact with players or personnel from the first two tiers.

As is currently the case at team facilities around the league, all players and employees who are admitted to the designated restricted areas must undergo daily screening and testing before being admitted to the facility.

The various tiers, while designated by the individual teams, must be approved by the NFL and require a separate entrance from that of the players while also adhering to mandated social distancing.

*Player lockers will need to be at least six feet apart, and no more than 15 players at a time may be present in the team’s weight room.

This one is a big challenge given the 90-man training camp rosters, though not necessarily one that can’t be overcome.

New York has always had to bring in temporary lockers to accommodate the larger roster in terms of the Giants' team facility, with some players even sharing a locker. Those practices will cease under these new guidelines.

The Giants could take advantage of the spacious accommodations at MetLife Stadium, which has multiple locker rooms that can be used, not to mention several meeting spaces that would potentially allow for the position groups to be spread out.

They could also potentially set up a makeshift weight room in one of the larger meeting rooms so that everything the team needed was under one roof.

However, there is just the one practice field, which is not necessarily preferred by coaches who like to hold various drills on multiple fields simultaneously.

Also, with the Jets also owning half of MetLife Stadium, the two teams would likely have to work out scheduling to avoid conflicts if they were to move their training camp operations to that building.

*All meetings should be conducted virtually whenever possible or held outdoors with players spread apart and wearing masks. Any meetings of 20 or more personnel must be held virtually or if adequate ventilation is available

While this provision is feasible, it’s also at the mercy of the weather. A more likely scenario for the Giants, assuming they don’t hold their meetings virtually, would be to hold their meetings inside the team’s field house before or after the on-field work is done.

*Players’ shoulder pads and mouthpieces to the field turf itself will require daily disinfection.

Efforts were already made to ensure team facilities were as clean as possible given outbreaks of MRSA a few years back, but now these efforts will apparently be stepped up.

The NFL’s memo did not address testing or treatment of those suspected of having been infected with COVID-19, but Goodell did say that those guidelines would be forthcoming.