NFL teams can begin reopening their facilities on Tuesday if state
and local governments will allow it.
In a memo sent to the 32 teams Friday by Commissioner Roger Goodell
and obtained by The Associated Press, he stressed that the clubs
must be in compliance with any additional public health
requirements in their jurisdiction, and have implemented the
protocols that were developed by (league medical officer) Dr.
(Allen) Sills and distributed to all clubs on May 6.
Facilities have been closed since late March due to the coronavirus
pandemic.
Each team was required to submit a plan to the league for reopening
its training/practice facility this week.
Clubs unable to meet these criteria on May 19 may reopen their
facilities on the earliest date thereafter on which they are able
to meet the criteria, Goodell added.
Sills will conduct a training program for club infection control
officers (ICO) on Monday night that is required.
Already established in the openings were these protocols:
-Until further notice from the NFL, teams may have no more than 50%
of their staff in the facility, not to exceed 75 people. If a club
wants to deploy staff to more than one location, all locations must
implement the same health and safety protocols, and the combined
number of employees at all locations can’t exceed 75.
-No members of the coaching staff can return to the facility under
the first phase of reopening. This is important to ensure equity
among all 32 clubs, Goodell wrote.
-No players may be in the facility other than those undergoing
medical treatment or rehab. Strength and conditioning coaches
participating in player rehab may continue that work in the
facility. Otherwise, they are barred until the rest of the coaching
staff is allowed to return.
-Members of the personnel, football operations/football
administration staff, equipment staff, medical staff, and
nutritionists can attend.
Naturally, any incidence of Covid-19 in the facility must be
reported immediately to Sills and the teams ICO. Clubs also must
promptly report any change in government regulations to the league.
After we implement this first phase, Goodell told the teams, and
as more states and localities enact policies that allow more club
facilities to reopen, I expect that additional staff, likely
including coaching staff, will be allowed to return to club
facilities in a relatively short time.
In the meantime, we are continuing to work with the NFLPA and our
medical teams on developing protocols that could permit a certain
number of players to return to club facilities as early as next
month.
NFL teams normally would be holding organized team activities
(OTAs) during May, followed by June minicamps. Due to the pandemic,
such activities have been done remotely.
Coaching and training staffs have worked with the players by
conducting classroom instruction and on-field activities through
digital applications instead of at team facilities. Those virtual
meetings can occur for four hours per day, four days per week.
The NFL has held the scouting combine, free agency and the draft in
the last two months. It released the regular-season schedule and
has said it expects to play it as planned, beginning Sept. 10 with
Houston at Super Bowl champion Kansas City.
But it is also making contingency plans for everything from a
shortened season to moving the dates of games to playing in empty
stadiums.
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP-NFL
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