On the eve of the NFL releasing its schedule for the 2020 season, the league needed to ensure hopes don’t get too excessive, with the sports activities panorama nonetheless unsure.
In a memo addressed to golf equipment Wednesday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell urged workforce officers to not remark publicly on hypotheticals surrounding the 2020 season, in an try to ensure no workforce — together with the outspoken amongst its possession — mixes the message the league needs to place out.
“The previous few months have been among the many most unsure instances that any of us has skilled,” the memo begins. “It’s unattainable to undertaking what the following few months will convey. Uninformed commentary that speculates on how particular person golf equipment or the league will tackle a variety of hypothetical contingencies serves no constructive goal and as a substitute confuses our followers and enterprise companions, complicates the operations of different golf equipment, and distracts from the cautious planning that’s wanted proper now.
“We’ll proceed to work in a deliberate and considerate method to plan for the 2020 season, together with with [Thursday’s] schedule launch, and we might be ready to handle any contingencies as they come up. Golf equipment ought to proceed to direct questions and considerations to our workplace and never remark or speculate publicly.”
With the NFL season not scheduled to begin till September, the league doesn’t but have to make the robust choices going through MLB, which in line with The Submit’s Joel Sherman will quickly suggest a plan to begin its season in July, or the NHL and NBA, which hope to complete seasons nonetheless on pause.
The NFL, in the meantime, is working by itself plan to reopen workforce amenities, which was spelled out within the league’s memo to homeowners.
“The primary part [of the league’s reopening protocol] would contain a restricted variety of non-player personnel — initially 50 p.c of your non-player workers (as much as a complete of 75) on any single day until state or native laws require a decrease quantity,” the memo mentioned. “Golf equipment would determine which workers may return to the ability and when as soon as amenities reopen. No gamers could be permitted within the facility besides to proceed a course of remedy and rehabilitation that was underway when amenities had been initially closed.”
The NFL suggested groups to have their amenities prepared and as much as league and native requirements by Might 15, placing groups in place to maneuver shortly as soon as a plan to return is introduced.
“Whereas these protocols have been fastidiously developed and mirror greatest practices,” the memo mentioned, “they can be tailored and supplemented to make sure compliance with any state and native public well being necessities. Golf equipment ought to take steps to have these protocols in place by Friday, Might 15 in anticipation of being suggested when membership amenities will formally reopen.”