Should the NFL consider a bubble?
October 15, 2020
Every single player in the NFL is tested daily for the coronavirus, as well as every member of essential team personnel who attends practices, games, meetings, etc.
Yet despite this, the NFL is currently amidst an outbreak of cases within the league, with positive tests coming from the Las Vegas Raiders, New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans, Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Falcons. As of October 13, there are a total of 20 players on the NFL’s covid-reserve list, which is what the league uses to keep track of players who have tested positive or have been exposed.
Loading ...
Many fans are already calling for the season to be cancelled, but truth be told it would take nearly every player to get Covid for the NFL to just abandon the season entirely. One big question is, should the NFL consider the bubble approach, and my answer is a simple yet circumstantial one, yes.
I think it’s clear that the NFL needs some sort of method to reduce the travel of the teams, which I feel would ultimately result in a decline in cases that pop up consecutively. The bubble would keep all of the players in one location around only their teammates, but I also think that it is a bit too early to isolate the players.
There are 50 players on every NFL team, now multiply that by the 32 teams in the league, and then add every team’s personnel staff. It would no doubt create as many problems as it solved (if it solved any) to have that many people in one state or city, using the same playing surface(s).
The idea I have is to hold the playoffs in the bubble, with those 14 teams being spread out over two cities in a big state. For example you could use Texas; there are stadiums in both Houston and Dallas and both cities are large.
You could have both conferences playing their sides of the playoff bracket in two different cities, and ultimately choose which city held the Super Bowl. This format would reduce travel between games to virtually none, as well as keep players in one place, to eliminate the struggle of finding out in what city players actually came in contact with the virus.
I like to think that the NFL is working on some sort of plan to make the season go safer and smoother, and limit the amount of cases they see for the remainder of the year. I do think they’ll adopt some sort of system once the amount of teams actually playing is lower.
