By Grayson Boyd

Russell Wilson (’07) had strong opinions on the 2020 season. Photo credit: Larry Maurer.

The highly anticipated 2020 NFL season is finally underway, a beginning unlike any major sports season in recent memory. Both due to the social justice movement sweeping through the United States and the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the country, the 2020 season is unmatched by any prior. During the summer, as the NBA and MLB seasons restarted, there was much controversy surrounding the start of the NFL season. The problem the NFL had to face when crafting a plan for the season was the overall size of the league and its teams. Each team has at least 53 players, and around 100 other personnel, making it virtually impossible to host a bubble similar to the NBA’s playoff bubble. 

For these reasons, the league waited until the last minute to create a plan, as the league had to watch the pandemic closely to see if it was even possible to have the 2020-2021 season. This left the players in the dark for the majority of the offseason and even led to the #WeWanttoPlay movement by some player leaders on twitter. Players stated concerns they had about the NFL not having a plan and concerns that they had about the season. 

One of the key figures of the reopening debate was Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (‘07). Wilson stated on July 19 on twitter, “I am concerned. My wife is pregnant.@NFL Training camp is about to start. And there’s still No Clear Plan on Player Health & Family Safety. We want to play football but we also want to protect our loved ones. #WeWantToPlay.” This movement showed the players’ frustrations towards the NFL and pressured NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to get things in order. Due to these rising pressures, the NFL was finally able to create COVID-19 guidelines that satisfied most of the players in NFLPA (NFL Players Association). However, players were given an option to “opt-out” for the season if they did not feel the guidelines met their standards. 66 players opted out before the deadline of August 6, mainly due to either a child or close relative being at higher risk than usual to the virus. Of those who opted out, there were a few star players, including superstar Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley, star defensive tackle for the Chicago Bears Eddie Goldman, and the Chiefs’ Super Bowl breakout running back Damien Williams.  

After finally giving in to the players’ demands of no preseason games and a shorter training camp period, the NFL offseason was finally off to a late start schedule, starting in mid-August, compared to the usual mid-July training camp opening of years prior. No preseason games were played in an attempt to ease the players into the season and cut down virus cases. To the public’s surprise, the offseason began without any major COVID-19 outbreaks for any teams and carried into the regular season in the same way. These guidelines proved to be successful; between Aug. 21 and Aug. 29, 58,621 tests were administered to a total of 8,739 players and team personnel, with 23,279 of those tests administered to 2,747 players and 35,342 tests administered to 5,992 personnel. Only four new confirmed positive tests were found among players, and six new confirmed positives were found among other personnel. Many people, including NFL fan Brooks Hall (’21), were impressed by these results: “COVID doesn’t seem like a big deal for the NFL, because there haven’t been many new cases in a while.” 

Breaking the COVID-19 guidelines results in repercussions for the players, and that’s what happened to 7th round draft pick and Seahawks rookie Kemah Siverand. Kemah thought it was a wonderful idea to bring a woman disguised as a Seahawks player, decked out in Seahawks merch, back to his hotel room in Seattle during training camp on August 12, which is a major infraction of the NFL’s Covid-19 guidelines. This could have potentially brought the virus to the rest of his team from an avoidable outside source; therefore, Siverand was swiftly released from the team. This instance showed the rest of the league that every team was truly committed to playing the season and keeping cases of the virus to a minimum. If a player disobeys the guidelines in any avoidable way, it could put an early end to his career. 

Week 1 was packed with pregame protests regarding the Black Lives Matter sweeping across the country. Following in the footsteps of the NFL’s social justice pioneer, former San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick, in Week 1 each team showed solidarity with the Black community during both the US National Anthem and the newly-added “Lift Every Voice And Sing,” a song considered by many activists to be the Black national anthem. The latter was added to the pregame agenda as some Black players did not feel represented by the national anthem, as the original poem “The Star Spangled Banner” was written when a vast majority of African Americans were still slaves in America. This song adds voices from the largely Black community of players in the NFL, which has long felt unrepresented in league leadership and among the owners. 

Week 1 lived up to expectations, as everyone got a preview of the high-powered Kansas Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens teams that will likely dominate the whole NFL season. Former MVPs Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson seem to have no weaknesses, and it is almost inevitable that the two will meet in the AFC championship. The local team that was formerly known as the Redskins, now the Washington Football Team, shocked the world with their 27-0 run in amazing fashion to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles on Sept. 13. B Pollard (’21) was one of those shocked fans who stated, “I was shocked, but it was a good team comeback win. The defense stepped up. Glad to be top of the division. Looking forward to the season.”

My team, the New York Jets, pulled off their expected loss and left me wondering if my favorite team can win more than three games this season. I look forward to the rest of the season and pray that the pandemic spares the NFL, and my Jets can finally earn some respect from the common fan. 

Featured image credit: Pixabay user skeeze.