In the end, I think they'll play in half empty stadiums. Travel can be manageable if they fly private. Hotels and player behavior in new cities is the biggest risk. How do you enforce a curfew with 1,500 - 2,000 athletes?
Biggest impact will be on the media. No more crowds of reporters all jamming microphones in athletes faces. Thank god. Do we even need a room with a podium in it? Can reporters ask their questions from home offices via Microsoft Teams or Zoom?
The reason that I think they play is to secure the TV money for 2020 and whatever fan-based revenue they can extract from luxury boxes and very limited attendance. If they don't play the season, there won't be 17 game checks during the year, everything would probably just toll. I could never imagine the players striking during the CBA negotiations because I felt too many players couldn't forego game checks. I still think that is the case.
COVID-19 is deadly serious, but football player careers average 3.3 years. When the union ratified the CBA this winter, many veterans were upset by the way younger players and minimum salary guys had voted, but the vote reflected their interests. They need to play to get paid and they aren't going to be able to play forever.
I think it is all about risk management at this point. Testing protocols will have to be run by the league, just like drug testing. If each team gets to test its players, do you think the Chiefs would be entirely forthcoming if say Patrick Mahomes tests positive before a big game. I can't imagine that they would let players who test positive continue playing. The contact tracing and definition of close contacts would be problematic. If one RB tests positive, and position groups meet together in rooms frequently, don't you have to quarantine all your running backs? I think that position group meetings need to be rethought too and done virtually. You can't be in close contact with all of your backups.
I hope they figure out a way to play and do it in as smart a way as they can.
