08-12-2020, 03:34 PM
(08-12-2020, 02:38 PM)jason Wrote: This... Is why the NFL should've followed the NBA or NHL models.
It does not work for the NFL and the simple reason is time. NHL and the NBA were heading into when this all struck. The NFL would essentially be starting a season, and you'd have to assume camp, in the bubble then carry it into playoffs. You would be asking people not to just quarantine for a couple of months, you'd be talking nearly 6 months across major holidays in a hotel. If you thought getting a deal done to open camp was hard, I just don't see a way the NFL would have gotten that negotiation done.
The other thing to remember is neither of those organizations brought every team into the bubble but rather settled on 24 teams. The NFL would have 8 more teams with more 30 players more than the NHL and 55 more than NBA. Now you need hubs that can accommodate much larger player numbers, coaching staff numbers, and larger official crews AND field operations crews that by their nature have to be close to players and would need to be quarantined as well. With being away for 6 months you are probably going to then have to cave on families being allowed in as well at some point, and not just playoffs like the NBA. If we used the NBA model of 4 guests per player you are now talking 10k people in just players and families, that isn't including coaches, officials, and game day staff and their families.
It would have been safe to assume that even if the NFL created four hub cities, each of those cities would have to accommodate a number of people similar to a singular bubble like what the NBA is doing. That would mean the NFL would have to test 4x as many people as the NBA constantly in four different geographic areas and that is assuming you could find four labs capable of even doing that many tests around the country in proximity to lodging and fields that could accommodate this.
