League execs anticipated there would be positive tests among players and staff during the seasonGETTY IMAGES
The NFL, just one month into its season and faced with outbreaks on multiple teams, has "discovered firsthand the limitations of even a world-class testing system," according to Adam Kilgore of the WASHINGTON POST. The league this summer "created perhaps the most sprawling, comprehensive testing program in sports," opting to test players, coaches and staff members with every franchise "daily, yielding hundreds of thousands of results over just a portion of the season." Still, the NFL's medical experts "knew players would test positive and miss games, and they anticipated testing alone would not keep teams safe." The league "understood the issues with testing heading into the season, emphasizing that while testing can help with containment, the simple acts of mask-wearing, distancing, hand-washing and reporting symptoms were how to prevent spread." In effect, the league "knew there would be gaps in any testing system." Kilgore wonders, "Are we seeing them now?" The NFL season is "not at the cliff's edge, but this week it crept toward it" (WASHINGTON POST, 10/9).
ROUGH PATCH: In Boston, Tara Sullivan writes the cracks in the NFL's return-to-play plan are "starting to show, and no matter how many fingers are being plugged into dams across the league, the threat of a deluge remains." From coaches to players to fans, "uncertainty continues to creep in about how, or even if, this season can reach its intended conclusion in a fair and safe manner." Managing this season is a "major puzzle, and right now, it feels like the pieces are scattered hither and yon" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/9). ESPN’s Dan Le Batard said “everything’s on the table because of the barenaked greed involved here” as the league will “move games for hurricanes, we’ll move games for fires, we will find the place to play the games for money no matter how many bodies we have to send into the sickness.” Le Batard: “This is something that is rare that you get it this barenaked. They’re going to get to their money, just like baseball got to their money" (“Highly Questionable,” ESPN, 10/8).
LEAGUE PREPARED ENOUGH? In Boston, Greg Bedard wrote the NFL had the "benefit of all the time and planning in the world." Bedard: "How did they use it? They just plowed ahead with the same-old, same-old." If the league office "had any people with common sense and not just Goodell's yes-people ... and greedy owners weighing in to make sure their pockets are lined properly, the NFL would have constructed a schedule that had a high probability of success." Every other sport has "had to make adjustments to their schedules and surrendered revenue." It was the "height of NFL arrogance that it thought it would be immune to this, that they would be able to make [it] through every single week and game." Bedard: "But here we are. We can't put the toothpaste back into the tube, so we just have to deal with what's going on" (BOSTONSPORTSJOURNAL.com, 10/8).
