The debate between league leaders and the NFLPA continued on Friday when the players union voted on Friday to cancel the preseason. This according to Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network.
After the players continue to raise concerns about playing soccer this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the leaders of the NFL Players Association decided to vote on what to do with the preseason and decided that it would be better to cancel the preseason entirely.
Part of the vote to cancel the preseason was a plan to have some kind of conditioning program that would take place in the games and would span weeks.
The first stage would be medical exams for all players by showing up at camp, which would last three days, according to Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network. The following 21 days would constitute the second stage, a strength and conditioning program to prepare the bodies of the players for a return to football activity. From there, the teams would go on to a third stage that would resemble OTAs in which players would participate in 10 days of contactless and fill-in practices before finally moving on to a fourth 14-day stage that would focus on the traditional aspect of the camp. As, with potentially 10 total practices with a maximum of eight padded practices.
The NFL recently decided to discard half of the preseason games, specifically weeks 1 and 4. It has not been known what the league’s current position is with the union’s drive to cancel all four games.
The Buccaneers and the other 31 teams are slated to start training camp on July 28, but members of the media planning to attend the camp will be under strict guidelines. Part of those guidelines includes limiting the number of reporters who cover practices, as well as not in-person interviews until further notice.
