Chiefs believe they have safety covered as they open the NFL season amid a pandemic
In a normal year, the Chiefs would have wrapped up training camp at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, with four preseason games under their belts before opening the regular season.
This year, though, has been anything but normal because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed 180,000 lives and counting in the U.S. alone.
And instead of preparing for a typical season, the Chiefs didn’t have the benefit of a rookie minicamp, organized team activities (OTAs) a mandatory minicamp and any preseason games for evaluation purposes.
Despite the ever-present threat of COVID-19, the NFL’s opening game will feature the Super Bowl-champion Chiefs hosting the Houston Texans on Sept. 10 at Arrowhead Stadium.
That in itself is an accomplishment, given the obstacles overcome just to get to this point. As of late August, the Chiefs had reported no positive tests among their players or staff during training camp.
“We announced (Aug. 25) that from August 12 through August 20, we ran over 58,000 tests of players, coaches and staff and we had zero confirmed positive tests among players, which I think is really remarkable,” said Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer. “I think again that just speaks to the great job our medical staffs, our coaches, our players, our team staffs are doing here.”
Some professional sports leagues have experienced COVID issues — Major League Baseball, for instance, postponed some games because of positive test results. The pandemic is a fluid situation, especially heading into the cooler fall season, and the NFL understands it needs to remain flexible in spite of its early success.
“It’s way too early to celebrate,” Sills said. “In football terms, we scored on our first drive, but we’ve still got a lot of football left to play in this game. But I think what it does say is this stuff will work.
“If we continue to be disciplined and vigilant, then we can keep ourselves safe and healthy, but it takes an everyday effort. And much like a football game, we’ve got to play all the way through to that final whistle.”
The NFL hasn’t reached this point without some help, of course. The Chiefs were in the middle of numerous offseason discussions before leading the charge toward the return of football.
Rick Burkholder, the team’s vice president of sports medicine and performance, served as a member of the NFL’s working group tasked with dealing with player acclimation in the absence of most offseason workout programs.
With Burkholder’s input, teams around the league implemented an eight-day strength and conditioning phase at training camp before starting full practices in pads. Burkholder also added the title of Chiefs infectious control officer and helped oversee the numerous safety protocols implemented at the team’s training facility.
Allen Wright, the Chiefs’ equipment manager, served on another NFL work group and contributed to discussions about best practices for sanitizing equipment and gear.
Through Burkholder’s and Wright’s efforts, and those of so many other Chiefs staffers, the team believed it had a good handle on health and safety across its buildings, locker rooms and practice field.
Players no longer share water bottles and hand towels on the field, and all football gear is sanitized after each practice. Instead of using locker stalls one next to another — in a normal year, an NFL locker room includes stalls for all 53 players on the active roster, 10 practice-squad members and select injured players — the Chiefs’ lockers are now spread throughout their main training facility and Arrowhead Stadium.
That socially distanced approach in the league’s locker rooms won’t change much during the regular season.
“On game day, we will only have 47 in the locker room — just about half — so we can put them in the two locker rooms, because with your 53, you’re not going to have those extra players in the locker room — at least we aren’t going to have those extra players in the locker room — and we’re not allowing injured players in there,” Burkholder said. “So, the locker room space, although it hasn’t changed, our numbers and our approach to home games and away games have changed.”
Other safety measures in place include contract-tracing protocols, social-distancing guidelines outside the locker room and the mandatory wearing of masks by players and staff alike when not engaged in the physical activity of football.
There’s also testing. Lots of testing.
When team employees and players arrive for work, the first thing they do is report to a trailer near the main tunnel entrance of the players’ parking lot. There, they have their temperatures taken and are given a contact-tracing device to wear before going inside the trailer for a nasal swab test. Results come back in less than 24 hours.
While some argue either the NFL is receiving preferential treatment for quick test results and potentially draining the public healthcare system, neither is true because the NFL uses a single national vendor, BioReference, to service all of its COVID-19 testing.
“We did not want to, in any way, impede or inhibit the local healthcare facilities,” Sills explained. “We set up this separate network, where again, they’ve created a separate testing station for each team. … There is never a way that we’re going to cross over and inhibit whatever healthcare needs, whether that be hospitals, emergency rooms or freestanding clinics.”
The Chiefs are one of a handful of teams scheduled to open the regular season in front of fans, albeit at 22 percent capacity of what Arrowhead Stadium usually holds. And they’re not doing so lightly, as COVID-19 has claimed more than 1,500 lives in Missouri and more than 400 in Kansas.
The organization believes it can provide a safe environment for a little more than 16,000 fans choosing to attend games thanks to an array of planned safety protocols on game day at the stadium.
Fans will be required to wear face masks inside the venue when they are not actively eating or drinking. The Chiefs are also spacing out seating assignments in the stands, and providing reminders throughout Arrowhead’s concourses that fans should remain socially distanced from each other.
“I think what makes us comfortable is our plan,” Chiefs team president Mark Donovan said. “We are very confident in our plan. We said this numerous times, and we’ll say it again and we will reiterate it, that our plan is only as good as compliance, and the following of directions and the following of protocol for our staff, for our players, for our coaches, for our fans.
“It’s critical that everybody follows the protocols, but if they do, we feel pretty confident that we can do this.”
