The NFL is currently holding training camp at 32 sites around the country as they attempt to pull off a non-bubble season without a major hiccup, something we’ve yet to see amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
While baseball continues to press forward, they have seen multiple franchises have to stop playing for weeks at a time due to outbreaks that have left them scrambling to finish their seasons with doubleheaders. That’s not an option for football, so they have to find a way to get through the season without team outbreaks that could sideline entire clubs for weeks on end. So far, though, so good.
The league, which is in the process of re-evaluating some of its testing protocols amid a rash of false positives, announced on Monday that, despite those popping up for some teams, testing has gone extremely well. The NFL released its testing data for the week of August 12-20 on Monday, noting that of nearly 54,000 tests, only six came back positive and none of those were player tests, as the more than 8,000 players took over 23,000 tests that all came back negative.
.@NFL COVID-19 Monitoring Testing Results: https://t.co/XQlXpmLKcT pic.twitter.com/CRVKU45TIN
— NFL345 (@NFL345) August 24, 2020
It is truly impressive and shows that so far team protocols in their facilities and hotels for camp are working as intended. It’s also a testament to the players for following protocols and fighting the temptation to go do things that could put their team at risk. Once camp ends and traveling between cities begins, that will be the true test of the NFL’s plan, but for now things are going as well as the league could have hoped.