The Coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc with spitting schedules all over the world. As a result, there are fears over a possible cascading effect on sports next year too. The NFL season was scheduled to begin on the tenth of September. However, there could be a delay and large scale changes as executives will want to keep everyone safe and have a full season.
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Possible changes for the 2020 NFL season
A Sports Business Daily report by John Ourand and Ben Fischer details out possible changes for the season. It states that the season could commence as late as 15th October. The report further reveals certain contingency plans which could see the Pro-Bowl weekend scrapped to make up for the delays of a late start.
The news will disappoint fans as they hope it does not come to that. As per a Statista bar graph, this year’s NFL Pro Bowl had 7.97 million viewers.
Another proposed change could see two weeks of early-season games shifted wholesale to the end of the season. A third week would feature teams only playing opponents with the same bye week, so that week could be cut and byes eliminated league-wide.
Fans can have a sigh of relief as the Super Bowl is still on the cards. However, it may be delayed. As a result of this, it may clash with events that already announced their schedule with the Super Bowl Sunday in mind.
Tampa Bay Sports Commission Executive Director Rob Higgins said they are focused on Feb 7, 2021, as the day for the annual extravaganza.
These are all contingency plans and should not be considered official. However, in a pandemic, one must in the words of NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy “be prepared to adjust as necessary.“
Will the NFL see a full schedule? Will the Super Bowl be postponed for the first time in history? We will come to know soon. The schedule will be released “no later than May 9” as per NFL Executive Jeff Nash.
