While things could certainly still change, the 2020 Hall of Fame enshrinement weekend scheduled for Aug. 6-8 is still planned to happen, according to a Tuesday report by Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports.
This also means that the annual Hall of Fame Game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys is still scheduled to be the NFL’s first exhibition of the 2020 NFL preseason. The plan for that game is for fans to be in attendance as well.
“One of the things we’re hoping for and that we’re willing to do is to almost be the test case for the NFL,” Rich Desrosiers, VP of communications for the Hall, told CBSSports.com this week, according to Jones. “Give us the green light and we’ll show folks how it can be done safely for fans, safely for participants and safely for the employees here. We feel very positive about the prospects of this happening in early August.”
While things could still change depending on how things progress not only with the coronavirus pandemic overall, but also with collectively bargained protocols between the NFL and NFL Players Association that can safely put players on the field for training camp, Jones reports on Tuesday that an official decision on if the 2020 Hall of Fame enshrinement weekend will stay scheduled where it is should be made by July 1.
“While the Hall doesn’t have a strict internal drop-dead date, the general understanding is that a decision for the August weekend must be made by July 1 at the very latest due to preparations and travel for Hall members,” Jones wrote in his Tuesday report.
On the surface, this is great news overall. That said, things could still change and especially when it comes to the start of the 2020 preseason schedule as well as the overall length of it. Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated reported recently that it’s still not out of the question that the preseason could be shortened by at least a week.
In summation, at least as it relates to the Steelers Hall of Fame Game against the Cowboys, a definitive answer on that preseason game should come within the next three weeks.
