Chiefs are done until training camp, but threat posed by pandemic remains top of mind
Thursday marks the final day of the Chiefs’ offseason workout program. The focus now shifts toward training camp.
But the month-long break at hand will be a period of uncertainty in spite of the NFL’s plans to play this fall.
The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, which brought the sports world to a sudden halt in March and to date has claimed more than 117,000 lives in the U.S., remains a threat in the absence of a vaccine. Recent projections forecast 200,000 American deaths from the disease by October.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid is trying to balance the unknowns against the team’s need for practice. Reid, Patrick Mahomes and the rest of the Chiefs will be attempting to defend the Super Bowl championship they won in February.
“Social distancing, all those things, are important until we know more,” Reid said during a recent video call. “We know that right now that works, so let’s focus on that.
“Until we know something else, we’ll do something else. But, this is new, so let science help us along with this thing and hopefully time takes care of it, which it normally does with these things.”
Over the past two months, the Chiefs and other NFL teams have been forced to adapt to the environment. Instead of doing on-field work, with the install periods and team-related drills typically seen during organized team activities (OTAs), the Chiefs conducted “virtual” training sessions.
Meetings and classroom tasks were conducted through Web-based applications. Players were left to their own devices to work out either in small groups or on their own, without coaching staff present.
The NFL only recently allowed coaches to return to their respective training facilities for the first time since March. The league also issued a tiered set of guidelines for the return of players, as long as protocols met with local and state government guidance for dealing with the pandemic. But the fact remains that the only players allowed in a given team’s training facilities are those receiving medical treatment as part of rehabilitation.
Usually, things would be full-speed ahead at this time of the year.
“I’ve been through a couple of these types of things,” Reid said. “I had the opportunity to coach in San Francisco when the AIDS epidemic was going on, so I felt that firsthand. I get the urgency there. Let’s just roll with it and see. We all know there’s going to be some kind of change potentially going on, and we’ll adjust.”
One big adjustment is already in place: The league has instructed the Chiefs and all other NFL teams to hold training camps at their home facilities this summer. For the Chiefs and their fans, that means no trip to Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph this year.
The NFL and Chiefs do have time on their side right now, with a few months still remaining ahead of the regular season. There are ongoing, real-life sports examples to learn from before training camps begin in late July.
College football teams around the country have started voluntary workouts. Major League Soccer last week announced a plan to resume play with a tournament in July in Orlando, while the NBA also hopes for a return in the coming month.
But the reality of the pandemic and challenges ahead were punctuated recently with student-athletes testing positive for COVID-19 at Kansas State, Auburn, Alabama and other schools.
The NFL hasn’t been immune, either, as earlier in the week the Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys both had players test positive, according to multiple reports. New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton and Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller had previously revealed they’d each contracted the novel coronavirus.
While the NFL remains optimistic that the 2020 season can be played with precautions, one of the country’s leading medical experts on the pandemic isn’t so sure. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN that players must be isolated, with regular tests administered, in order to pull it off.
“Unless players are essentially in a bubble — insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day — it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,” Fauci said. “If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year.”
The NFL’s top medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, on Thursday released a statement to acknowledge Fauci’s comments, adding the league is working with medical advisors to “mitigate the health risk to players, coaches and other essential personnel” through the challenges.
“Make no mistake, this is no easy task,” Sills said, via ESPN’s Adam Schefter. “We will make adjustments as necessary to meet the public health environment as we prepare to play the 2020 season as scheduled with increased protocols and safety measures for all players, personnel and attendess. We will be flexible and adaptable in this environment to adjust to the virus as needed.”
Whether training camp, much less the 2020 regular season, actually starts on time remains to be seen. Certain regions of the country, such as in Arizona, Texas and Florida, are experiencing a rise in positive COVID-19 cases and the NFL is surely keeping a close eye on these developments.
In the meantime, Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu believes he and his teammates have used the past two months wisely.
“I think we’ve actually gotten a little bit better — I think we got a little smarter,” Mathieu said. “So hopefully most guys have been using this time to make sure their body is right, make sure their mind is right, because we have been through a lot these last couple of months.”
Mathieu understands that the coronavirus threat exists and personal safety is a priority.
“For me, my rule No. 1 every day I wake up is to protect my family,” he said. “Definitely wouldn’t want to be bringing anything back home to my family, but along the other lines, I miss football. ... I was actually telling someone the other day that I don’t think I ever checked out. I’m still in football mode, and that’s a good thing for me.”
This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 11:15 AM.
