Roger Goodell Tells Teams to Hold Training Camps at Their Home Facilities
Coronavirus is still occupying the nation and preventing sports from being played as normal. The NFL has been able to avoid altering any schedules or events, but now Goodell is officially saying that training camps should take place at teams' home facilities rather than their training facilities.
Read the full video transcript:
Robin Lundberg: The NFL could be on a way toward return, but before it returns to action, teams have to practice, of course. And Roger Goodell has told them to hold their training camps at home facilities. For more, I'm joined by our Conor Orr. Connor, how much different is this than the normal? Obviously, you know, this is a part of the pandemic, but it doesn't seem too far off what the normal schedule would be.
Conor Orr: No, and I think a lot of teams were heading that way anyway. There were only a few hold outs at this point who maybe some more tenured coaches who believe that they get some sort of intrinsic value out of holding the training camp somewhere else. You know, they always cite team bonding. But I think that the luxuries of home have gotten so significant that most teams were heading in that direction anyway.
Robin Lundberg: I think maybe the most significant wrinkle here is that there won't be any inter-squad scrimmages, it will all be individual teams to themselves.
Conor Orr: Yeah. And, you know, that especially affects coaches from the Belichick tree. You know, he was especially fond of the inter-squad scrimmages and older coaches, I think really liked meeting up with some of the younger guys and studying how they did things. You know, the Saints and the Rams were two teams that, you know, liked to practice together and learned from each other. So it'll be interesting to see if that has any impact. But I do know that a lot of coaches thought that had more value than just a static training camp practice.
Robin Lundberg: Now, as far as you know, is everything else business as usual for the NFL? Because I've seen them say that ticket sales are gonna maybe open up and stuff like that.
Conor Orr: Yeah, I mean, they're sort of riding this wave of optimism. I mean, here in the Northeast, we're starting to open up outdoor restaurants, barbershops, salons and stuff like that. And so the NFL is, you know, just hoping there's no second wave and, you know, it'd be very NFL-like to just sort of plug your ears and close your eyes and assume that nothing bad is going to happen. But maybe they'll actually get away with this. Who knows? I mean, it's it's really up to the pandemic. It's up to the American public. And we'll see what happens.
Robin Lundberg: Yeah, the NFL really has been incredibly fortunate. The timing of all this thus far. Connor, appreciate your time, as always.
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