The NFL will test players daily for COVID-19 for at least the first two weeks of training camp, this after reaching an agreement with the Players Association.
After two weeks, the league will test less frequently if the overall positive rate is below five percent. If the positive rate is above five percent, daily testing would resume.
This comes after several NFL players voiced concerns about the league’s health and safety measures – or lack thereof – in response to COVID-19.
“It seems like the players are getting more and more of what they want, but that’s on the health and safety stuff,” former NFL player and current podcast host Ross Tucker said on Tiki & Tierney. “I’ll be interested to hear what happens with the financial stuff and the smoothing of the cap.”
In addition, the union would like all four preseason games to be canceled, but the owners would like at least one.
As for the 2020 season, the league would like players to decide whether or not they will participate by Aug. 1. For some players, the decision could come down to money.
Take Tucker, for example. He played in the NFL for seven seasons and made the league minimum for five of them.
“Every guy like me would play,” said Tucker, who hosts The Ross Tucker Football Podcast. “You need that salary. I’m trying to get a good financial head start for my family. The pension, the annuity, the benefits – all that stuff. I would play. Is there some risk? Yeah, but there’s also, for me, a significant financial risk to not playing.”
The same cannot be said for the game’s biggest stars.
“Maybe they have $20 million in their bank account and maybe it’s not worth the risk to them,” Tucker said. “Tiki decided at some point that even just playing wasn’t worth the orthopedic risk and the cognitive risk, and you walked away when you still had a lot left. More power to you. But there’s a lot more guys like me than there are like you, but the guys like you are a lot more famous and a lot more people will take note if one or two of them decide not to play.”