NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith is preparing players for the uncertainty and changes that the coronavirus pandemic has placed on the world and, in a smaller sense, the NFL. Though there haven’t been any firm decisions yet, Smith hinted toward the need for mass testing as an important step for returning to football.
“The benchmarks that it seems that are somewhat consistent is the need for mass testing. I haven’t heard anyone who hasn’t emphasized mass testing in the community for measuring how and to what extent things can return to somewhat normalcy,” Smith said. “I don’t have the answers right now. Knowing the availability of widespread testing is something we would definitely want to know — the availability of kits. I certainly wouldn’t want to be in a situation where we are making a choice to taking test resources away from some group of people to provide them to another group of people. That raises ethical issues. We’d also want to know the information that’s coming from that test … what’s coming from that test?”
Smith deferred to the league on how mass testing would go, but he noted that there would be steps needed to figure out exactly how players and their families would be tested as well as “a myriad of ethical questions” that come with that.
In a video press conference with reporters Wednesday, Smith acknowledged that there was still a lot of uncertainty around the coronavirus pandemic that everyone is still learning more about daily.
One week after the NBA and National Basketball Players Association agreed to a plan to withhold 25% of each player’s paycheck beginning May 15, Smith acknowledged that the NFL-NFLPA CBA doesn’t have a force majeure provision like the NBA that can be enacted allowing teams to cut player’s salary due to the cancellation of games.
“Our salaries are tied to revenue. The CBA is clear on how that’s calculated. It’s also clear about the obligations to the parties in the event of cancellations of games,” Smith said. “[There’s] an obligation for the parties to get together and negotiate in good faith as far as projecting the salary cap. We have provisions in place where we know process-wise what happens. The only thing we don’t have to plug into the formula is exactly knowing what’s going to happen. We certainly will be engaging in those projections as we go forward.”
That means teams can’t unilaterally decide not to pay players or even cut their 2020 salary in the event that the regular season is cancelled. The NFLPA and NFL would enter negotiations in that scenario to project the salary cap. Smith said they are bound to a contract and he expects to “follow the CBA.”
But while players’ money may be protected in the 2020 season, Smith noted that the coronavirus could and likely will impact the league’s overall revenue which directly impacts the 2021 salary cap.
“It’s always going to be a concern because it effects the salary of our players,” Smith said. “Obviously if there are no fans attending games, there is going to be some impact on ticket revenue. The impact of this virus is going to cut across not only a scenario that includes no fans but also for companies who don’t have the money available to match or increase their sponsorships that they’ve done in the past. Companies that might spend a tremendous amount of public relations money on luxury suites or anything else. You don’t have to look far but the travel and hospitality business is probably the hardest hit, and all of those things could and probably will have an impact on our overall revenue.”
The NFLPA launched an internal covid-19 task force a month ago chaired by Dr. Thom Mayer, the NFLPA’s medical director, centered on the topic of “how do we go forward in our business in a pandemic that is both emerging and evolving?” They’ve discussed a variety of different scenarios such as quarantining players, limiting staff, playing without fans and other alternatives along with a traditional season depending on how the pandemic changes in the coming weeks and months. This task force evolved from an emerging infectious disease task force that has top doctors from across the country and a liaison from the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci’s office.
“One through 10,000 on my list is how do I keep these people safe,” Mayer said. “Because if we can’t keep them safe to the maximum degree possible with risk mitigation, thae we can’t talk about the penultimate things around games.”
The NFL also has a task force with a similar goal. Smith said that they drafted a memorandum of understanding to detail how everyone is going to interact and work together within a novel and emerging pandemic that he expects will be agreed to soon.
Virtual offseason sessions are underway for teams with new head coaches with other teams to follow, and there will likely be more shifts to the normal pace of the offseason. But Smith says the goal remains the same.
“Everybody is committed to doing everything we can to coming back and coming back strong and start the season on time. That’s certainly in the heart of people to get done. The commitment is there,” Smith said. “But at the same time we have to proceed with tremendous amount of caution.”