Last season, the NFL had an incredibly difficult time coming up with ways to limit the spread of COVID-19. There were various instances where games had to be canceled and rescheduled due to the fact that teams had suffered some bad outbreaks. Eventually, the NFL was able to get things under control and when it comes to the postseason, everything had died down quite a bit.
Now, the NFL is gearing up for its first-ever 18-week, 17-game season and the league is taking some dramatic actions to make sure teams stay in line and take COVID-19 seriously. According to Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, the league will actually be fining teams a considerable amount for violations of the COVID-19 policy and when it comes to individual games, some teams might have to forfeit.
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In the tweets below, it is revealed that the league has no interest in rescheduling games this season. As a result, the team with the outbreak will have to forfeit and have a loss counted against their record. There are also massive implications when it comes to the financial well-being of the players. Essentially, if a game is not played due to an outbreak, no one from either side will be paid.
“If a game is cancelled and cannot be rescheduled within the current 18-week scheduled due to a Covid outbreak, neither team’s players will receive their weekly paragraph 5 salary,” the NFL’s memo to all 32 teams read.
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Needless to say, the NFL is not messing around right now, and they want to make sure this season goes by smoothly and without any hiccups. It’s easy to see why the league would do this, although it might not go over so smoothly with the players and the owners.