Wanted to start a thread to pull together updates related to the upcoming season.

As posted in another thread (https://texags.com/forums/23/topics/3120693), the Hall of Fame ceremonies and game were postponed for a year.

Today, it has leaked that weeks 1 and 4 of preseason will be cancelled.

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The NFL will cut the preseason down to two games, with Week 1 and Week 4 slated to be eliminated from the schedule, according to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio.

There were two motivating factors in trimming the schedule to two games, per Florio. Travel will now be limited for teams, with some potentially staying in their home city throughout the preseason. Teams will also now have extra practice time with their players following an abbreviated offseason program.

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New York just announced no professional sports can have fans. This only impacts the Bills since the Jets & Giants play in New Jersey.

Thread...

#WeWantToPlay is the NFL's version of #WhereAndWhen

This looks like some sort of power play for more money. I mean, they're going to be playing FOOTBALL! What kind of "protection" and protocols are they looking for? All the tweets sort of sound the same, which leaves me wondering....

We live in a crazy world. Why is anybody even talking about "safety" when we are referencing a sport that on any given play 18-20 guys will be making physical contact with another player. Sweat, breath, etc will be exchanged between players thousands of times every game.

Either play or don't play, there is nothing safe about football.

My point exactly.

Yeah, but the NFL is coming up with dumb guidelines to make a show of safety. They are preventing players from swapping jerseys, and they can't come within 6 feet of the other team after the game.

https://nypost.com/2020/07/09/nfl-players-mock-leagues-jersey-swap-ban/

The players think this is dumb and rightly so. Also agree with the above comments. You have 50+ people on a crowded sideline having close contact on the field with 50+ people on the other sideline. There is no way at all to make this process safe. So you either play and accept the risks, just like CTE, joint problems, etc or you don't play.

Shockingly, the NFL and NFLPA agreed to initial testing protocols today.

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NFL players will be tested every day for the first two weeks of training camp, Dr. Allen Sills, the league's chief medical officer, said in a conference call, and it is expected that players will need more than one negative test before first being allowed to enter team facilities.

At the two-week mark, the rate of positive tests for those tested -- players, coaches and staff who are in close contact with the football team -- will be examined and if the rate of positive tests is below 5 percent, testing will move to every other day. Training camp is set to begin for the entire league July 28.

The NFLPA and league agreed to these protocols Monday.

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This also sounds promising...

lunchbox said:

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I knew there was some sort of "end game" the players were looking for. All those organized tweets, all in one day...

I'm good with it, hopefully, like other things in all this, this will lead to some improvements. Like, maybe only 2 preseason games/year going forward .

The NFL is going to screw this up royally. It feels like they are just waiting on the other professional organizations to make a decision and then they will copy that or do the opposite. They have had the longest time to get this right since they had just ended their season when everything went to **** in the beginning of 2020.

Goodell is yet again, missing the boat and this time it will cost us the season

NFL is now announcing that they will not be playing any preseason games this year...

bdgol07 said:

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The NFL is going to screw this up royally. It feels like they are just waiting on the other professional organizations to make a decision and then they will copy that or do the opposite. They have had the longest time to get this right since they had just ended their season when everything went to **** in the beginning of 2020.

Goodell is yet again, missing the boat and this time it will cost us the season

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How is Goodell screwing this up?

Panama Red said:

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bdgol07 said:

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The NFL is going to screw this up royally. It feels like they are just waiting on the other professional organizations to make a decision and then they will copy that or do the opposite. They have had the longest time to get this right since they had just ended their season when everything went to **** in the beginning of 2020.

Goodell is yet again, missing the boat and this time it will cost us the season

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How is Goodell screwing this up?

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There is no concerted effort by the NFL that I have seen that shows their plan on how to make sure a season happens. They've already had a number of players that have tested positive and just now in the past few days even released a plan for the players to have an idea of what to expect. They have the most time to make something happen for the most popular sport in this country and so far, they've dropped the ball.

My impression of the NFL's attitude has been full steam ahead.

Free agency issues - doesn't matter...league year starts as scheduled
Can't have the draft in Vegas...OK, we'll do it virtually
Rookies reporting as scheduled.

Yeah, the players went on twitter and made some noise. What did the NFL do? They hammered out agreements within a couple of days. MLB couldn't do that...

I've actually got more faith that the NFL will get through their season than I do with MLB.

Masks required for all fans where they are allowed in...

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How is Goodell screwing this up?

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Hard to pin anything specifically. We do know that he's a weak figurehead that bows to the owners. He is completely reactive, and he never seems to have any advance plans. He'll kick the can down the road until the last possible minute, leak a tentative decision to the media, and then finally make up his mind when the public and the owners give him their reactions.

Following those lines, they cancelled preseason. So the can is kicked all the way to Week 1. Expect a "leak" the week prior talking about fans/no fans, masks/no masks, and all the stuff dealing with fans. Then he will come out with an official announcement a day or two before games start.

The NFLPA will make sure the player side of things is wrapped up before that. Game protocols, travel, testing, practices will be sorted out any day. The NFLPA and the NFL work way better togetther than any other pro sports union and league

No offense, but it sounds like you were really just looking for a reason to say Goodell sucks. Your post doesn't really make any sense other than you being mad you were not aware of what they are doing.

ramblin_ag02 said:

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How is Goodell screwing this up?

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Hard to pin anything specifically. We do know that he's a weak figurehead that bows to the owners. He is completely reactive, and he never seems to have any advance plans. He'll kick the can down the road until the last possible minute, leak a tentative decision to the media, and then finally make up his mind when the public and the owners give him their reactions.

Following those lines, they cancelled preseason. So the can is kicked all the way to Week 1. Expect a "leak" the week prior talking about fans/no fans, masks/no masks, and all the stuff dealing with fans. Then he will come out with an official announcement a day or two before games start.

The NFLPA will make sure the player side of things is wrapped up before that. Game protocols, travel, testing, practices will be sorted out any day. The NFLPA and the NFL work way better togetther than any other pro sports union and league

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Well...in literally the post above yours, they have announced the mask decision. So....

I'm not a Goodell fan at all and am looking forward to seeing how the next guy does...but I can't take a crap on him for how the NFL has handled things.

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Well...in literally the post above yours, they have announced the mask decision. So....

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Right. The PR guy's twitter. Not an official press release or press conference. So if it blows up in their face they can say it wasn't an official policy

So if the NFL spokesman says something publicly, it isn't an official announcement from the league?

Let me put it this way. I've never seen any other major corporation or league announce major policies that affect their entire customer base by having a mid level employee post it on social media.

ramblin_ag02 said:

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Let me put it this way. I've never seen any other major corporation or league announce major policies that affect their entire customer base by having a mid level employee post it on social media.

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Huh - seems to be a weird hill for you to choose to die on. He's not a mid-level employee. He's the VP of Communications.

ESPN took his statement as gospel...

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29517766/nfl-confirms-masks-mandatory-fans-allowed

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Huh - seems to be a weird hill for you to choose to die on. He's not a mid-level employee. He's the VP of Communications.

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In my mind you're either making the decisions and policy or you're a mid-level at best. This guy isn't deciding league policy, so he's mid-level even with a VP title. I only say this because I completely lack respect for Goodell. With masks being such a controversial topic, it's his MO to drop semi-official messages or leaks that he can contradict later when he knows which way the winds are blowing. He should have released an official memo from the league office about the masks, but then he wouldn't be able to backtrack in a week if it blew up in his face.

there is nothing semi-official about this announcement. this is the policy. i'm guessing goodell has a few things going on at the moment and relied on his VP of communications to communicate for him.

very odd thing to nitpick about when goodell is such an easy target for many other reasons.

NFL didn't use the right person to announce a policy.


May be the best example of searching for something to complain about I've seen in awhile.

Sounds like the owners and players are really close to agreeing on a lot of the financial issues.

If the deal gets approved today (as is expected) I can't wait to hear how much Goodell sucks for getting things done.