2020-21 NFL thread

I would not be surprised if there is a rift between some owners and the medical people. I'd ask if the owners were too cheap to go all out to ensure there is a season, but I think we all know they are that cheap - that stupid is another question. Greedy of course. Imagine if the NFL crapping out on this - is the death knell for the Trump campaign. And done in by his buddies among the owners no less.

 

Raiders have made no decision on seating capacity at new Las Vegas stadium - ProFootballTalk

I mean - I think many Raiders fans wear masks anyway but,

and 65k for a Garth Brooks concert -

And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end/the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could have missed the pain
But I'd have had to miss the dance

 

Let’s be clear when talking about greedy and the NFL. The television partners are as greedy as the owners. Each network MAY have a designated contrarian, but almost all the on air journalists and commentators will bless whatever it takes to play a full and complete schedule. Any print or online journalists going to loudly decline to attend a game, practice or pc? Yes the owners a greedy and the stakeholder with the least personal risk. But as god as my witness I’ll donate $100 to Jerry Jones favorite charity if he stands on the sidelines or the locker room without a mask.

 

But that's what I mean - I'm not saying don't play. I'm saying do whatever it takes to play a complete season. I think a few cases per team (regardless of the player/position) will be tolerated, 10 or more and its dunzo. Which is why the league should be doing everything it can to minimize risk and give players confidence the league knows what it is doing. So far - apparently - they haven't.

 

Updating this story … how about a seating capacity of zero?

The man’s not smart when it comes to hair (dude, seriously: try SuperCuts), but he’s making a lot of sense here:

If no fans are admitted, Davis said, he will not attend games, either. As the lone dissenting vote on the league owners' recent decision to tarp off the first eight rows of seats from the field in each stadium and cover them with advertisements, Davis said the Raiders' idea of leaving the seats for fans and erecting hockey-style plexiglass around the bottom of the stadium to separate fans from players on the sidelines was "shot down" before the vote.

"No one fan is more important to me than another, no matter if they paid for a $75,000 PSL or a $500 PSL," Davis told ESPN.com Sunday night. "They're all Raider fans to me. My mindset today is no fans [should attend games].

"I don't even know if it's safe to play. 'Uncertainty' is the word."

Regardless of fans at games, Davis said he sees three options for the NFL at the moment:

1. Go on as planned, with teams reporting for training camp over the next week, and see what happens.

2. Delay the start of the season until November and go to a 12-game season, cancelling each team's four interconference games. (For the Raiders, that would mean games at the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons and home games against the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.)

3. Cancel the 2020 season entirely. …

Davis said with no fans, it will be a "soft opening" for the team's $1.9 billion, 65,000-seat domed stadium near the Las Vegas Strip, with an eye on going bigger in 2021, should the coronavirus pandemic subside by then.

"We want our inaugural season to be something special," he said. "I don't even know if we'll light the [Al Davis] torch. These are all potentials and respecting all."

In saying that he would stay away from games if he decides to exclude fans from Allegiant Stadium, Davis said only people "essential to the production of the game" should be in attendance.

"The only thing I'm essential for is after the game, yelling at Jon [Gruden]," Davis joked of the Raiders' coach. "I can do that over the phone."​

Raiders owner leaning toward games without fans

 

Plus - can you imagine with no fans - even more reaction shots from the owners box. Nobody wants that - unless the Cowboys are losing.

 

We can finally identify a positive thing about the Trumpandemic.

 

And entering the conversation for the worst living professional athlete...

 

We are starting to see more players opt out.

The Patriots had a few opt out yesterday, including Dont'a Hightower and tackle Marcus Cannon. Cannon is a cancer survivor and Hightower has a newborn at home.

The first was Chiefs lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif. I believe part of his reasoning was his work as a doctor.