he NFL is in full swing and the stadiums are filled again at almost full capacity, but have the fans and league forgotten that there still is a pandemic?
A little bit about the past.
The NFL announced last year that stadiums will be at limited capacity due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In response to the pandemic, the NFL set protocols for teams– each team had to follow protocols the league set in regards to player infection and prevention of the virus. The league allowed for teams to choose whether or not they wished to have fans be allowed at the stadium; each team was also allowed to put certain protocols on those who were allowed in. Out of 32 teams, only 12 decided not to have fans whilst the rest only allowed a limited amount to watch.
The 2020 season came to a close with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers led by Tom Brady in his first year with the Bucs (after a 20 year dynasty with the patriot’s) becoming super bowl champions (which they became the first team to play a super bowl in there home stadium), but as the NFL crunched the numbers for the revenue gained in the 2020 season they reported that the league including teams lost a total of $4 billion dollars due to the pandemic from there average revenue each year. A league that generates an average of $13.3 billion dollars in revenue yearly, lost $4 billion dollars.
Prior to the 2021 season, the Covid-19 vaccine came out in the US; as a test, the league used the NFL Draft to see how the crowd would react– the number one rule was to show proof via a vaccination card. It was a success, loads of people had arrived to see a draft and as the NFL was announcing the drafted players they would promote the vaccine. As the NFL Announced that they would have the stadiums in full capacity, but with a load of new protocols.
As preseason games started, one could see the loads of people who wanted to see football. As the regular season is setting in, only 1-5 people in a shot of 50-80 are wearing masks. In the opinion of many medical personnel and the CDC, the NFL should enforce the mask policy on teams.
The NFL has a lot of work to do if they want to protect more people and reduce covid cases caused by the masses of ecstatic football fans.
