Every day, we still see tens of thousands of new cases of Covid-19 infections being reported or confirmed, and thousands of deaths. Yesterday, the United States reported 30,929 new cases with 2201 more deaths, the totals now at around 1.1 million total cases in the country and 64,000 dead as a result of the viral pandemic.
A number of reasons can and will account for this seeming defiance of positivity. Every single day of April saw more than 20,000 new cases reported. Every single day of April saw over 1000 dead. More than half the time, the number of dead topped 2000, including for three consecutive days after having been below that in three of the previous four.
Increases in testing around the country, other areas reaching the height of infection, and after-the-fact numbers being added to the totals explain why the numbers don’t seem to reflect the claim that the curve is flattening, at least in part. In some places, it has flattened, and is even trending down. In others, it’s still going up, so it balances out.
I discuss this only relative to what it means for the state of the 2020 NFL season, and the most important thing to remember about that is the fact that nothing can be done by any team until all teams are able to do it, because the league is committed to ensuring that there will be a competitive balance. If an option is available for one team, it must be available for all 32.
And right now, we don’t know what those options might be and when they might be available. But we do know what those in the league think about what it would take to actually get players ready to play, in the event that there is a season. Take Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks.
“The process is underway. We are just going to keep thinking it’s happening and keep our head down about that and find out more later”, he said of when activities might resume. “We haven’t heard much of that at all in regards to that from the league. They are not ready to make any statements at this time, either”.
He added that he feels as though players need “six weeks of work to get rolling”, referring at least to his own team, saying that “that’s what the league has always allowed us”. But if teams are not ready to open training camp on time, they would either have to cut down the offseason or delay the start of the regular season.
“Without an intense offseason, with competition and guys working against each other and all of that, I don’t know”, he added. “We’re going to have to just figure it out. We won’t know until after we see the results of what happens”.
