What will NFL football look like in the midst of a global pandemic? It is a question that players in the league are still waiting for an answer. While the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced their leagues will not play college football in 2020, some NFL teams are thought to be gearing up to have fans in the stadium. The Dallas Cowboys are one of them.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones met with the media on Wednesday and announced his intention to have fans at AT&T Stadium during Cowboys games this season.
“The Dallas Cowboys are going to play football, and we are going to play for our fans,” Jones told the media on Tuesday at his first press conference since the NFL draft. ‘I think it’s important. I find it individually important. I think it’s important for the country. ”
Jones said he has no expectations yet for how many fans may be there, but noted that the Cowboys would follow state protocols. Currently, Texas plans to hold sporting events at 50 percent capacity.
For the massive AT&T Stadium, that would potentially mean 40K people, even when it’s half full.
It’s hard to see how this can be safe for the general public, but there’s not much doubt that the NFL will do everything in its power to keep revenue flowing by putting fans in seats. We’re starting to get an idea of what NFL participation might look like this season.
How will the NFL get away with fans in the stands?
Get ready for “pods” to be the hottest buzzword of the NFL season.
Yahoo! Reporter Charles Robinson Sports reported some speculation about how the NFL will make to put fans in the stands when the pandemic rages on. The idea is apparently to put parties as large as 10 or 15 people together and distance themselves socially from other parties in the stands. The Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots, and the Cowboys seem to stand out the details.
#Chiefs, #Cowboys, #Patriots… they are all working on a “pods” system of presence. And I have been told that the system seems to have the most traction across the league for the teams hoping to participate. https://t.co/S9C1j3wsYS
– Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) August 12, 2020
Jones even shone on this idea at his press conference.
We also have a stadium that has 3 million square feet in it … if you look at a number in the stadium, don ‘t think that number matches that, they are not. It will be in pods of possibly five, 10, 15 different people. Our stadium is well-suited to put together numbers of people who have chosen to come and want to see the Dallas Cowboys. I will not speculate on a number. ”
AT&T Stadium is obviously the largest in the NFL and has modern amenities that many NFL stadiums do not have. Jones noted the stadium “Naturally constructed air flow” as a reason, the franchise could loosen it. It’s easy to roll your eyes at such sentiment.
Maybe pods from fans cow work in the NFL, but it would certainly require a ton of planning. So far, the NFL has been noticeably absent in detailing those plans to both fans and players.
There’s one more big problem with having NFL fans in the stands
You guessed it: the pandemic we’ve been in since March is still a big part of our daily lives. No, the Dallas Cowboys and their fans are not immune to it.
Jones said he expects fans to be accountable and make decisions about how to stay safe:
“I am fully confident that if I have ever seen a general population have information about where the problems are, where the vulnerabilities are, how you behave, the do-right rule relative to the person with you and besides that you do when you do not know, I’m sure we have a very trained situation and that our fans can come and have a safe experience in our stadium together with of course our players who have the safety you ‘ t they are needed for football, ”he said.
Unfortunately, we have seen time and time again that people make reckless decisions about Covid. It’s happening all over Major League Baseball, and it’s likely to happen that football fans will also be playing personal games this year.
Jones said he finds it “important for our country” to have fans in the stands at NFL games. That said, it’s more important to keep people safe and to squash the pandemic in the United States once and for all.
Maybe the NFL will be able to pull safe pods. What’s frustrating is how quiet the NFL has been about what protocols will look like for the players up to this point. If the NFL is serious about this, then let’s show you a detailed plan for how anyone who loves the game – from fans to athletes – can safely enjoy it. Until then, it’s hard not to be skeptical about the idea of AT&T Stadium at 50 percent capacity this fall.
