DENVER — Understand it’s not just the NFL that will decide when games will be played and how those games will look in light of the coronavirus pandemic crisis.
The players have a say, too. The players who have wives, kids and are providers for so many. Players who are protected by union representatives.
“It doesn’t make sense to play any games unless it is completely, 100 percent safe for us to go out there,’’ Broncos veteran safety Kareem Jackson said Tuesday in a Zoom media call. “If there is any threat to us being able to contract COVID of any way and spread it to our families or anybody else that we’re around, it just doesn’t make sense.
“I think I heard them saying something about us playing with no fans and all that. That will be like practice. In my opinion that would suck. Just talking with some of the guys, it just doesn’t make sense to go play any games unless it’s 100 percent safe for us to go out there.”
That was an unfiltered response. Drew Lock’s response seemed filtered by the Broncos’ public relations department.
“I’m definitely going to defer that to the professionals, the doctors and everything,’’ Lock said on his Zoom media call. “I’m no expert on the coronavirus as of right now so I’ll let them decide that. Whenever they decide that it’s OK to play then I’m ready to play.”
The NFL will announce its 2020 preseason and regular-season schedules for all 32 teams on Thursday evening (6 p.m. MDT). It's not clear whether those games are played as scheduled or if there is a delay if they will be open to in-person viewing.
One adjustment the league has already made is there will be no international games this season.
