At least one gap has been closed in negotiations between the NFL and the NFLPA. The NFL has offered to wipe out the 2020 preseason entirely, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. The NFLPA informed its constituents there will be no preseason games this year, Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle tweets.
[RELATED: NFL Proposes Practice Squad Expansion]
Previously, the league offered to reduce the schedule from four games to two. The union, meanwhile, wanted zero games. The NFL tried to meet the union in the middle with just one game – to be held on what would usually be Week 3 of the exhibition schedule – but the NFLPA wasn’t having it. Now, owners are willing to do away with the whole thing, but they’re likely expecting the players to cave on other matters.
Key issues that are still TBD: finances, the overall return-to-work acclimation period, and testing procedures. On the safety front, the league has agreed to daily COVID-19 testing for players. If the positive rate for players (plus coaches, staffers and select execs) dips below 5% over the first two weeks of camp, the league will move to every-other-day tests.
Meanwhile, other measures are being considered to bolster rosters. Earlier this week, the NFL proposed an expansion of the practice squad. Currently, each team has a maximum of ten spots.
This is a smart decision. Why take any risk for meaningless games?
If that is the case… why take the risk and play any games at all? I’m not saying that pre season games are useful or not, but does 1 less game make a difference in the safety of the players? Highly doubtful.
Don’t see daily testing working out – ask MLB how well it worked out. And the NFL will have at least triple the tests to process daily.
I just can’t see how a season of football can be achieved. maybe I’m wrong. I hope I am. But any one thinking they will get this season done safely or at all, defies all logic.
This is about getting the season done. It never was about getting the season done safely.
They are all meaningless
It’s not meaningless to rookies, newcomers, and players on the roster bubble. I believe this could be detrimental to teams undergoing rapid change over the offseason. Training camp is one thing, but everything changes when you actually step on the field. A contest to get players acclimated and familiar with their game day duties would’ve been very helpful. I do understand if the NFL wants to reduce risk, however
Can’t wait to see rusty first few games. And the rookies might as well take a year off. Prepare for injuries and ugly games. I hate preseason as much as any fan, but it’s not fair to roster players on the bubble. There has to be two.
The first 3-4 games are going to be brutal with no preseason I’m expecting lots of injuries and teams realizing they jumped the gun rushing players into full time play. Bad decision imo
Bet we’ll see false start penalties at a record rate.
I’d extend that to the first 5-6 games will be brutal. No scrimmages, no live action. That’s assuming this makes it that far.
I’m not sure why it has been difficult to resolve the pay issue. I wonder whether someone has suggested, say, a 10% total of a player’s contract to be paid upon that player’s opting out. The owners don’t want to pay for opt-outs, and players don’t want to be left in a bind without pay. This way the owners won’t pay as much for no work and the players don’t get left out. Do that and toll the contract for a year. At least, that’s what I’d do.
The players want guaranteed salaries paid even under opt out conditions. They also want opt outs to count towards accrued years relative to free agency. Sure they want it all, they can negotiate from here. It’s just that in a Covid climate each party is expecting something more out of the deal.
Yeah, you’re right. It just seems obvious to me that a portion of the guarantee would be an acceptable compromise, and I’m sure most players and owners would accept that in some form. But hey, that’s not how you negotiate.
I suspect that the contract tolling is a larger issue. I wonder whether we will ultimately see a new tag for that-some sort of transition style tag where the year does count, but a team can tag a player for an additional year equivalent to or a large portion of his last year’s salary.
Or maybe the NFL just pays them for having the year not count. A sort of redundancy pay, split amongst the players, as a “stipend” for having the year not count. That’d be an easy, if arguably underhanded, way to get the lower paid players on their side and win the NFLPA vote. Not that I advocate that necessarily, just a possibility.
With no preseason, the NFL should do something like MLB: Expand the rosters for the first few weeks to give more guys rest and reps, then shrink them to maybe 60 by week 6. It’ll cut down on some conditioning-related injuries and give rookies, UDFAs, etc., a chance to make a squad.
Well that would just make too much sense.
This is a fantastic idea.
they’re too chaep to do that probably
Anyone know how much TV money canceling the pre-season is costing the league? It seems to me that the league was trying to find a way to smooth the drop in the cap next year. The easiest way to do this is to actually play games and generate revenue. I’m sure this will be remembered when the sides start discussing the cap in ’21 and beyond.
I guarantee you that drop is more significant than the reduction in home game revenues. The NFL has tied its profits to ad time and TV contracts for the past thirty or forty years, increasingly so every year. Every time you hear about an influential owner, there is something having to do with negotiating TV contracts. The money they’re due to get next year from CBS, FOX, and NBC is $3 billion, just from the contracts.
I do wonder if the NFL couldn’t see this as a possible opportunity. Taking a year off is painful for fans because they rely so much on the games. Distance makes the head grow fonder. They’re good at throwing themselves celebrations and congratulatory pats on the back-make the return a big spectacle, offer more ways to purchase viewership, maybe do two Hard Knocks style locker room shows annoying teams as they prepare to return and put them on a paid platform, make the return seem bigger. I personally would despise that, but if they’re worried about their cashflow, I wonder why a business as greedy as the NFL hasn’t seen the opportunity. I’m sure whatever they decide, it’ll be not the worst, but somewhere close to third least desirable option.
Starters never played anyway, preseason is for rookies and players needing to prove themselves so not sure why they canceled it . Can’t worry about media pumping up covid when people are labeled as positive and they never even got tested, total scam!