The following tweet is about as funny as they come.
NFL teams will be forbidden from postgame interactions within 6 feet of each other and jersey exchanges between players will be prohibited during the 2020 season, sources say.
Another way the NFL will look different in the COVID-19 world.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 9, 2020
The NFL is looking to ban post-game gatherings due to the COVID 19 crisis. No jersey swaps, no hand shakes.
You see the irony right? A game that’s base is human contact banning the simplicities of the post game handshake. Ok Mr. Goodell what about the players grappling and sweating and spitting on each other in the trenches?
How exactly is that safer than a post-game exchange of jerseys? The bottom line here is that the NFL has a crisis on its hands. That crisis is COVID. How exactly the league can justify playing during a global pandemic and come out with “player safety measures” is a fine line to walk.
In reality, you can’t play football this fall with player safety in mind. It is just impossible, unless COVID disappears overnight. The problem of course is that football more than any other sport is a contact sport. The pads don’t cover the body the way hockey players do, there are chinks in the external armor, lots of exposed skin.
This is a fact the NFL does not want to admit of course. If there is no league, no money gets made, the cap goes down and the NFL a league with relative labor peace over the past ten years descends into a chaotic fight between players and owners over money.
That fight is already starting. The NFL on July 7 announced that 35 percent of player’s salaries would be held in an escrow fund to help balance out potential revenue loss.
The NFLPA informed its board of representatives today that the NFL proposed 35% of player salaries be held in escrow to help manage costs during the 2020 season, per sources.
It's one option on the table if revenue is impacted leaguewide by COVID-19.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 7, 2020
A report that apparently forced the NFLPA to respond by telling the league to “Kick rocks” according to Tom Pelissero. Labor peace is coming to an end. In every major sport. The NFL could have catastrophic consequences though, the new CBA was agreed to pre pandemic so the owners have all the leverage at this point but there is very real smoke that players may sit out this year if the NFL proceeds to play.
That hurts everyone. The jersey swap rule has already gotten loud opposition from both 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman and Texans Quarterback Deshaun Watson. If a player like Watson were ever to sit out it would set the precedent for other major stars to skip the season as well. Who could blame them at this point? We as a country thought we would have this virus handled by now way back in March when the NFL proceeded with free agency and the draft as business as usual.
We haven’t dealt with it though. The American public has conflated mask wearing and social distancing somehow with the idea their freedoms are being taken away. Sports leagues aren’t built to deal with global catastrophe, they are built to print money.
Without a functional society and government around them though when it comes to handling the pandemic, printing money is hard to do when the opponent is a global pandemic and a crushing depression that seems inevitable at this point.