About half the United States is seeing a troubling trend as it relates to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
States such as California, Arizona, Florida and Texas have added a single-day record high number of virus cases over the past week.
This has led to some weariness about team sports resuming amid the raging pandemic.
Increasing concern that the 2020 NFL season will not be completed
This comes directly from Joe Banner, who spent 20 years running front offices around the league. It should raise some eyebrows.
The initial concern was that a second wave during the fall and winter would shut down the NFL season. As the United States remains the epicenter of the virus around the world, we’re not even out of the first wave right now.
League planning unchanged NFL schedule for 2020 season
While the NFL did cancel August’s Hall of Fame Game and induction ceremony, it still plans to start training camp late next month. The league is also planning to begin the regular season Sept. 10 with the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Houston Texans.
How realistic is this right now?
United States COVID-19 cases
Not to be a pessimist, it isn’t looking great. The United States has seen three of its four-highest days of COVID-19 cases within the past week. This number topped out at a staggering 44,726 on Friday.
As of Saturday morning, the United States remained the worldwide epicenter of the pandemic with 2.51 million confirmed cases and 127,000 deaths.
Adding to the issues for the NFL is that it’s going to be incredibly hard for the league to play in a bubble like we’re going to see with the NHL and NBA here soon.
The league is still planning on teams playing at their home stadiums. Some squads are expecting fans in attendance. Unless something drastically changes on the COVID-19 front within the next month or so, the latter option is pretty much as unrealistic as it gets.
There’s now obvious concerns within league circles that the 2020 season won’t be completed.