Chiefs provide behind-the-scenes look at COVID-19 safety setup at Arrowhead Stadium
It’s Arrowhead Stadium as the players have never seen it.
Because they’re embarking on training camp as they’ve never seen it.
The Chiefs provided a behind-the-scenes look at the new COVID-19 health and safety protocols that comprise their Infectious Disease Emergency Response (IDER) plan, which has been approved by the NFL and the players’ union.
For the initial two weeks of camp, the players will be tested for COVID-19 daily and provided a contact tracer. In the case a player, coach or employee tests positive, he or she will require medical clearance to return, and the tracer will provide information about whom that person has come into close proximity with.
In a video uploaded to the team’s YouTube page, Chiefs vice president of sports medicine and performance Rick Burkholder and director of team operations Mitch Reynolds gave president Mark Donovan a tour of the altered setup at Arrowhead Stadium, where the team will conduct training camp.
Very altered.
Rather than sharing the home locker room, players are split into multiple rooms in the bowels of Arrowhead. Defensive backs and linebackers will split the visitors’ locker room. Defensive linemen are across the hall in the visiting coaches’ room. Members of the offense and quarterbacks are also split into different rooms.
All of it to create social distance between players’ spaces. Plexiglass is placed between each locker space, and only every other locker will be used.
The players will use the club level for meeting spaces, with chairs sitting six feet apart. The largest event space can seat 97 players and coaches. The Chiefs’ position groups will use game-day suites for breakout rooms.
The setup at Arrowhead Stadium became a requirement to comply with NFL Players Association and NFL protocols. The Chiefs scrapped their usual trip to St. Joseph, abiding by a league-wide mandate to stay on campus for training camp.
“Adapt and overcome,” Donovan says in the video.
“Find a way to get it done,” Reynolds adds.
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 7:49 PM.