Roger Goodell said health and safety was "our first priority" when developing protocols with the NFLPAGETTY IMAGES
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league believes it is "safe to continue" and not shorten the season despite rising COVID-19 cases around the country. Speaking during halftime at yesterday's Ravens-Steelers game, Goodell said, "We’re seeing the virus spread increasing in our communities so that’s a challenge for us but we believe that the protocols that we’ve established are working. We’re going to continue to evaluate and see what improvements we can continue to make as we did just last week. Obviously, our objective is to finish 256 games safely." Goodell said the health and safety of players and staff is "our first priority." He noted the league has developed its safety protocols with the NFLPA and “we believe that they’ve been very effective in identifying, isolating and controlling and containing the virus.” Goodell added, “In the Baltimore case, we were concerned with the containment. We saw a number of positives over the last 10 days." He said the league's health and safety staff, led by NFL Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sills, "did a wonderful job of tracing the virus and making sure that we understood where it was generated from, how it was spreading." Goodell: "By having the delays of a couple of days, that gave us the confidence that we understood where the virus was coming from, how it was continuing to spread and that we were in the last stage of that" (“Ravens-Steelers,” NBC, 12/2).
NO CENTRAL PLAYOFF BUBBLE: Goodell also said that he "doesn’t envision the league going into a bubble this postseason." USA TODAY's Mike Jones notes the prudence of a playoff bubble has been "debated for much of the year after the NBA completed its season and postseason in a bubble at Disney World," but NFL officials have "maintained that such a move isn’t practical for the NFL given the much larger amount of personnel involved." Goodell said that “'all options are on the table' but declined to shed light on what contingency plans are being discussed to better ensure that teams don’t suffer COVID-19 outbreaks during the postseason." However, Goodell was "clear in articulating the league's stance against the notion of a central playoff bubble." He said, “We don’t see bubble as where we’re all in one location. We feel strongly our protocols are working. We are willing to adjust and adapt those protocols and take additional steps but I don’t see us doing a bubble in way lot of media focuses on it" (USA TODAY, 12/3). NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero said there are “more and more active discussions about creating local bubbles, isolating players and other team personnel in a hotel (“Good Morning Football,” NFL Network, 12/3).
LEAGUE WILL STAY PATIENT ON VACCINE: Sills yesterday said that the NFL "would not seek priority access to a vaccine if one comes available during the postseason." YAHOO SPORTS' Charles Robinson wrote the league has "gone to great financial and testing lengths to keep its Super Bowl schedule on track." But Sills said that it is "important that there is no appearance of the league jumping ahead of health and safety workers, as well as 'at-risk' individuals, who are expected to be prioritized for a vaccine in the coming months." Sills importantly "stopped short of saying that NFL players and personnel wouldn’t potentially be in line for a vaccine, instead noting that an 'appropriate' timetable could factor into the equation." Sills: "We are not in any way trying to campaign to cut in line, as it were, with regard to vaccine availability" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 12/2).
