The Pittsburgh Steelers have already had one of their five scheduled preseason games cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic and it looks like two more will be officially cancelled very soon.
According to a Wednesday report by Pro Football Talk, the 2020 NFL preseason has been cut in half, per a source. The social media report also goes on to say that it’s believed that Weeks 1 and 4 of the preseason will be the ones that get cancelled.
The NFL has yet to confirm the Pro Football Talk report, but it won’t come as a surprise if that happens soon. The expectations for the last few weeks have been that the 2020 NFL preseason would be cut in half due to fallout from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The league previously officially canceled the 2020 Hall of Fame Game between the Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys last week. That game, along with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2020 inductions, have been postponed util 2021.
Assuming the complete report from Pro Football Talk is correct, the Steelers two preseason games will be against the New Orleans Saints and New York Jets. The Steelers home preseason against the Saints is scheduled for Aug. 23 and their road preseason game against the Jets for Aug 28. It will be interesting to see if those dates and opponents hold. According to Mark Maske of The Washington Post, there could be some tweaking to team’s schedules.
The Steelers two preseason games against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers are the ones expected to be cancelled, according to the early indications of the PFT report. The Steelers preseason game against the Buccaneers was scheduled to be at home with the game against the Panthers scheduled to be on the road.
It’s still very unclear if attendance will be allowed at any preseason games this year. Even so, odds are good that any preseason games played this summer will be done so without any fans in attendance.
