The NFL will release its schedule later this week, the latest in the NFL's plan to march full speed ahead toward the 2020 season.
Though the league has acknowledged the coronavirus could alter or reduce the season and it emptied out team facilities league wide, it continued with free agency and the draft as scheduled, and it'll be the same with the schedule. The Shield damn sure it's going to budge an inch to COVID-19 until the disease leaves it no other choice.
Even still, the NFL isn't immune to real-world forces. Amid a report that teams could lose $100 million if the season is played without fans, the league has begun the public workshop phase of how it could stage games in front of fans in a social distancing world.
On Monday, the Miami Dolphins unveiled a plan that would see fans enter through designated gates and leave in a coordinated effort.
"We would have times to come in for security at different gates so people would be separated out in terms of when they enter the stadium," Fins president and CEO Tom Garfinkel said in a segment on Good Morning America. "We would exit the stadium much like a church environment where each row exits so people aren't filing out all at the same time in a herd."
The Dolphins worked with the Global Biorisk Advisory Council to develop the plan. The GBAC "provides training, guidance, certification, crisis management, assistance and leadership to government, commercial and private entities looking to mitigate, quickly address biological threats and real-time crises, and/or recover from such events."
The plan for Hard Rock Stadium -- ironically, the last place to host an NFL game -- earned the group's STAR accreditation, the first public facility to earn such a designation in the United States.
The plan would see Hard Rock Stadium's capacity reduced from 65,000 to 15,000.
The NFL season is slated to begin Sept. 10.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.