Houston Texans defensive end JJ Watt (99) warms up hitting the post before an NFL divisional round game between the Houston Texans and the Kansas City Chiefs on January 12, 2020 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, MO.
GP: Scott Winters | Icon Sportswire | fake pictures
After months of being on the sidelines, it is now the NFL that is on the clock for pandemic protocol.
And time is running out.
The NFL is until July 28 as the start date of the club’s training camps, as the league begins to step up operations for its 2020 regular season. But health, safety, and financial problems remain unsolved with the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA).
Without an agreement, the NFLPA can disrupt the NFL’s plans. Players can file a complaint to delay the start of training camps (some newbies are expected to return as soon as Monday) and use the reason that workplace conditions are not up to par if Covid protocols- 19 have not yet been resolved. The complaint is optional, but the NFLPA will seek to stop the camps once a player files a complaint.
The NFL did not make an official available to comment on the matter.
The problems are similar to the Major League Baseball pandemic battle. On the economic front, NFL owners want reimbursement funds for the potential for loss of income. With the likelihood of no fans in the games, the club’s owners sought custody of 35% of the players.
The NFLPA considers docking players to be off limits and instead issued its payment criteria to a league that raises $ 15 billion annually. According to people with knowledge of negotiations, the NFLPA is seeking $ 500,000 per player if the league begins its regular season and then has to cancel games due to Covid-19. Players also want the preseason to be canceled entirely, without seeing any financial reason to play games without counting. The NFL has already canceled both exhibition preseason contests due to the pandemic.
The individuals spoke to CNBC on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the negotiations.
NFLPA President JC Tretter wrote to union members in a public letter addressing concerns about “the safety of players, both in preventing virus transmission and in preventing injury “after a long downtime in the offseason. Tretter also said that NFLPA board members voted against having preseason games this year.
“Since March, we’ve had hours of return-to-work meetings, reviewed research, and developed detailed protocols, all of which will be wasted if the NFL refuses to think and act differently when it comes to spending an entire season. Players don’t ‘We just want to go back to work; we want to stay at work,’ Tretter wrote.
On Thursday, Houston Texans star JJ Watt also took to Twitter to list the concerns of more players, including how the Covid-19 results would affect future contracts.
The players union is also awaiting the plans and daily testing commitments of the 32 infectious disease emergency response teams (IDEAR). The NFLPA is also pursuing league policy on opening camps at Covid-19 hot spots like Florida, California, and Texas.
The United States reported 77,255 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday. It broke a record single-day peak at nearly 10,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The NFL is slated to begin its 2020 regular season on Thursday, September 10.
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