The 2020 NFL season may be well underway, but the coronavirus pandemic has impacted the league big time, both on and off the field.
It didn’t take us long to notice the off-field impact given that very few teams have allowed fans to attend their home games this year, and the franchises that have opened their gates have only welcomed in a very small percentage of their stadium’s capacity.
National Football League owners are billionaires or multi, multi-millionaires who sit upon a Mount Everest-like pile of money thanks to the league’s lucrative television contracts, so most of that off-field impact has been felt by the fans who either can’t attend their favourite team’s home games or are missing the crowd noise while watching on TV.
The on-field impact was felt, and felt hard, this past weekend during Week 2.
COVID-19 wiped out NFL training camps and rookie camps this summer, negating the traditional run-up to the season when players were able to rev up their engines in time for the start of the year.
In 2020, the league hit the starting line cold and it showed on Sunday when numerous star players suffered significant injuries, some of them season-ending.
The San Francisco 49ers lost five starters to injury on Sunday, including quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and defensive end Nick Bosa, while the New York Giants will have to make due without star running back Saquon Barkley.
Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffery also got hurt, as did Denver Broncos QB Drew Lock and receiver Courtland Sutton, and Green Bay Packers receiver Davante Adams.
Who knows? These players may have still gotten hurt even if they had seen some snaps in the preseason, but the way 2020 has gone thus far, I think it’s fair to heap the blame on the pandemic.
Rick Zamperin is the assistant program, news and senior sports director at Global News Radio 900 CHML.
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