Our recent point regarding the increased use of the returnable casualty pool was partly correct, and partly not. Now that the full document containing all the details of the league’s offer to the NFL Players Association has been obtained by the PFT, we can explain exactly how the injuries and diagnoses of COVID-19 would be treated in 2020.
The procedures explained above would in fact apply to the injured reserve in general. Each team would have the opportunity to return a unlimited number of players to the active list after placement in the injured reserve or the list of non-football related injuries / illnesses.
The 2020 rules only, which will come into effect after 4:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 6, will allow the team to remove any player with or without soccer injuries from the roster for three weeks. After three weeks, the player can return to training. Once he returns to training, the team will have 21 days to put him back on the active list.
This applies to all injuries, football or non-football. The unprecedented flexibility to park players on IR / NFI and bring them back after just three games comes from a broader desire to ensure that the maximum number of players are available to play this season, in the event of an outbreak of COVID-19.
For players who test positive for COVID-19, even more flexibility will apply. A player with a confirmed diagnosis will be placed on the list of exempted authorizations / commissioners. Once the player is medically cleared, the team will be eligible for a roster waiver. A player who has been on the exemption / commissioner clearance list for less than four weeks will be granted one week’s exemption. If the player is on the roster for four weeks or more, that becomes a two week exemption.
In other words, players who test positive for COVID-19 should not miss at least three weeks. They will not be placed on IR or NFI but on the commissioner’s exemption list, a designation that has become known in recent years for the placement of players facing allegations of misconduct outside the field. There will be no minimum or maximum stay on the commissioner’s exemption list.
Placement on the statutory auditor’s list of exemptions always results in full payment. Thus, it is now perfectly clear that players who test positive will not suffer any loss of earnings, even if they caught the virus far from the workplace.
