NFL Players Association President JC Tretter escalated disagreement with training camp and pre-season conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday, writing in a blog post that “n ‘ is unwilling to prioritize player safety and believes the virus will fold to Football. “
The NFL solidified its plans last week to halve the 2020 pre-season from four to two games, and create a 23-day training period in training camp to account for the likelihood that players show up at training camp less prepared for football after a fully virtual off-season program. The NFLPA objected privately to the plan, which the NFL has not publicly announced, and its board of player representatives voted last week to approve a no-game plan.
Tretter’s blog post made the problem available to the public with new details. He wrote that the joint NFL-NFLPA coronavirus task force had agreed to a 48-day training camp with no preseason games, partly in response to the Achilles tendon surge and hamstring injuries occurred in the season after the 2011 league lockout, which also canceled the off-season program. .
According to Tretter, the NFL has provided no medical reason to insist on two preseason games. A source said last week that the NFL believed that pre-season games should be organized to assess formations and to allow teams to train under new travel protocols related to the pandemic.
“Every decision this year that favors normality over innovation, custom over science or even football over health, dramatically reduces our chances of finishing the full season,” wrote Tretter.
The NFL declined to comment. He previously offered to start training camp in mid-July in response to the NFLPA’s request to extend the acclimatization period, but the union rejected the offer. Training camps around the league will open on July 28 for most players. The league last week gave teams a partial list of test protocols and travel requirements for training camps and presumed preseason games, but it has not completed its plan for implementing the regular season.
“We don’t just want to go back to work and stop the season before we even start,” wrote Tretter. “The NFLPA will do its part to defend the safety of players. We will continue to hold the NFL accountable and demand that the league use the data, science and recommendations of its own medical experts to make decisions. It has been clear since then We have to find a way to integrate football into the world of coronaviruses. Making decisions outside of that is both dangerous and irresponsible. “
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