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Miami Dolphins President: 'We’re Confident We’re Going to Keep People Physically Distanced and Safe'
As unbelievable as it may sound, in just two weeks the NFL - and maybe college football - will be back.
For most football fans around the country, this means watching your favorite teams on TV take the field in empty stadiums with the nation continuing its battle of COVID-19.
In Miami, the Hurricanes' home opener on September 10 and the Dolphins' home opener on September 20 will look a bit different: 13,000 fans will be allowed entry to Hard Rock Stadium.
The announcement came Monday from the Dolphins and according to President and CEO of the team, Tom Garfinkel, it’s time to get on with our lives.
“We can’t curl up in a ball and live in fear, go climb on the couch and not leave the house," Garfinkel said. "I think we have to get out, we have to be smart about it, we have to be responsible and we have to do it safely.”
This is the goal of the Miami Dolphins and Garfinkel told Hoch and Crowder he is confident the 13,000 people that will attend games in September at Hard Rock Stadium will be “physically distanced and safe.”
So what will watching a game be like this season? Listen to Garfinkel detail how a fan would experience a Dolphins game at Hard Rock Stadium this year.
The Dolphins become one of just eight teams hoping to have fans in attendance at games this season with 15 organizations already ruling out spectators at home games.
The 13,000 person limit - just around 20 percent of Hard Rock Stadium’s capacity - may not be the final number we see allowed as the season goes on.
“If the numbers get really really good, I could see us potentially moving to a half-full stadium,” said Garfinkel while maintaining that safety is the main priority.
One thing the President of the Dolphins made clear, masks WILL be required by all guests attending a game.
“If you’re someone that doesn’t want to wear a mask, don’t come. This isn’t the place for you this year.”
For more from Tom Garfinkel on with Hoch and Crowder, including information on ticket availability and the local government’s role in this decision, listen below:
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49ers to open season without fans
The 49ers announced that the team will open the season without fans in a Tuesday morning press release.
The NFC champs begin the season on Sept. 13, hosting the Arizona Cardinals at Levi's Stadium. The team has left open the possibility that fans could be welcomed back later in the season.
Here is part of the 49ers' press release:
"Last month, we informed 49ers season ticket members of our expectation to start the 2020 NFL season without fans at Levi’s Stadium due to the continuing COVID-19 health emergency and accompanying government restrictions. Through ongoing dialogue with State and Santa Clara County officials, and in accordance with public health guidelines, we can confirm that we will begin our season on September 13th against the Arizona Cardinals without fans in attendance. We will continue to work with State and County officials regarding the potential to welcome the Faithful back to Levi’s Stadium later this season."
Governor Sticking By No Fans For High School Sports
PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - Governor Tom Wolf is sticking to state Health Department guidance that no fans be allowed at high school sports events this fall.
Wolf says he has an “open mind”, but so far he hasn’t changed it.
“I don’t know of a safe way to do that and I think all of us ought to be focused on getting kids back into a learning mode as quickly as possible that ought to be our priority,” said Wolf on KDKA Radio Tuesday.
Pennsylvania’s outdoor limit for gathering is 250 people.
Bands and cheerleaders will be allowed.
Allegheny County has modified its rules to allow for sports including football, but also without fans.
The Fan’s Colin Dunlap questioned that logic on Monday, asking if hundreds of protesters can safely gather, why can’t parents watch their kids play sports safely?
Mt. Lebanon Suspends Football Practice After Player Tests Positive For COVID-19
PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - Mt. Lebanon High School’s football team has been shut down until September 2 after a player has tested positive for coronavirus.
The move to shut down practices will force the Blue Devils to cancel a scrimmage against Upper St. Clair scheduled for September 4 and the season opener against Baldwin scheduled for September 11.
Football must have five heat acclimatization days in a row if starting before September 4 and five days of practice must be completed before the first scrimmage. A total of 15 practices must be completed before the first official game.
The district made the decision to suspend practice after receiving guidance from the Allegheny County Health Department.
The district said the test was administered on August 20 and the player last participated in summer workouts on August 18.
“The health and safety of our students and staff is our top priority. We are committed to following the cleaning protocol and guidance in our Athletics and Activities Health and Safety Plan and direction from the Allegheny County Health Department to ensure we are providing a healthy and safe environment for our student-athletes involved in athletic programming,” said John Grogan, Mt. Lebanon’s Athletic Director.
COVID-19 Test Irregularities, False Positives Causing NFL Teams to Take Precautionary Measures
After Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford had to deal with all of the ramifications of a positive COVID-19 test, it was revealed that he never actually had the virus after all.
The NFL community was hoping that this scenario, which put the entire Stafford family under a lot of distress, would be a one-time occurrence. After all, what good are all these coronavirus tests if you can't trust their reliability?
Unfortunately, Stafford and the Lions aren't alone, and it seems that the culprit this time is one testing lab in New Jersey which has differed significantly from other labs in terms of test results.
Several NFL teams are altering or cancelling football activities today after irregularities in results from Saturday’s COVID-19 test results from the same lab in New Jersey. Statement from the NFL: pic.twitter.com/RhwzHQVsUA— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 23, 2020Among the teams that are taking precautions and that have received false positive results are the Chicago Bears, whose nerves were understandably rattled following a recent batch of test results.
Bears had nine players/staff text positive for COVID but, upon further review, nine results were false positives, the team said. Out of an abundance of caution, they postponed this morning’s practice to this afternoon at 1:30pm.— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 23, 2020The Bears are joined by the Cleveland Browns, who chose to delay practices and other team activities in order to remain as safe as possible.
#Browns have cancelled practice due to COVID situation. Team planning statement shortly.— Tom Withers (@twithersAP) August 23, 2020However, good news came out of Cleveland in the afternoon, as every player who received a positive test came back negative in the next round of testing.
Update: We are reopening our building and will resume football activities this afternoon.Statement » https://t.co/QOClnceJD3 pic.twitter.com/LOrvQ5cjqv— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) August 23, 2020NFL insider Ian Rapoport mentioned that it was not just limited to these two teams, saying that "several teams received several positive results," all from the aforementioned New Jersey lab. However, he's spinning the story with some optimism, calling it a "test run" for the regular season in case a similar situation occurs.
Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane says that the Bills are one of the many teams affected, and that a few players will be sitting out of practice due to these positive test results (via Maddy Glab). In addition, he mentioned that there are nine or 10 other teams who have been impacted by these irregular test results.
The Jets are one of those organizations, according to head coach Adam Gase. Brian Costello of WFAN shared what Gase informed the media.
Gase said the Jets had to cancel their walkthrough last night because of the COVID testing issue that is affecting many teams around the league. #nyj— Brian Costello (@BrianCoz) August 23, 2020Gase said they had 10 positive tests yesterday. #nyj— Brian Costello (@BrianCoz) August 23, 2020They all came back negative in subsequent tests so the Jets went ahead with practice today. #nyj— Brian Costello (@BrianCoz) August 23, 2020After the news about the Jets' results broke, another team was affected in a similar quantity.
So after the Bears had nine false positive tests this weekend, and the Jets 10, the Vikings now have 12 presumptive positive tests from the same New Jersey lab that produced the other testing results.— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 23, 2020Head coach Mike Zimmer said that eight players, one coach, and three staff members were the recipients of the positive test results, and that they'll be held out of practice on Sunday (via ESPN's Courtney Cronin). He also shared Rapoport's glass-half-full perspective about the timing of the incident.
Zimmer: "Honestly for us, it’s probably good that it happened now because we were able to adjust and adapt and figure out the kinds of things that would happen if did happen during the season and what we would do from there."— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) August 23, 2020The Patriots also learned of false positive tests, according to reporter Jeff Howe, who says that there were several absences from practice as a result.
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Bears Report 9 False-Positive COVID-19 Test Results
(670 The Score) The Bears pushed back their scheduled morning practice Sunday until 1:30 p.m. after the team's COVID-19 test results returned nine tests deemed false positives.
The Bears made their decision "out of an abundance of caution," the team said, after the NFL reported testing issues out of the BioReference lab in New Jersey. The Bears have their results run through a lab in Minnesota, head athletic trainer Andre Tucker said in late July.
"This morning we learned yesterday’s COVID-19 testing identified nine players/staff as positive," the Bears said in a statement. "We followed additional NFL-NFLPA testing protocol and confirmed all nine results as false positives. Out of an abundance of caution, we postponed this morning’s practice to this afternoon at 1:30 p.m."
The NFL also issued a statement on the matter Sunday morning, looking to investigate the results of these tests.
"Saturday’s daily COVID testing returned several positive tests from each of the clubs serviced by the same laboratory in New Jersey," the NFL said. "We are working with our testing partner, BioReference, to investigate these results, while the clubs work to confirm or rule out the positive tests. Clubs are taking immediate precautionary measures as outlined in the NFL-NFLPA’s health and safety protocols to include contact tracing, isolation of individuals and temporarily adjusting the schedule, where appropriate. The other laboratories used for NFL testing have not had similar results."
The NFL has seen early success in its COVID-19 prevention goal, with the players' association reporting just 64 positive cases for players since teams reported to training camps in late July. That accounts for 32 teams holding 80-man rosters. Only four players were on the league's new COVID-19/reserve list as of Saturday night.
Entering Sunday, the Bears didn't have any players currently on the COVID-19/reserve list, designated for players who either contracted the virus or came in contact with a person infected.
The Bears are scheduled to have an off day Monday after practicing Sunday afternoon at Halas Hall.
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.
MLB Postpones Subway Series Over Mets' Positive COVID Tests
Major League Baseball has postponed the remainder of the scheduled Yankees-Met series at Citi Field this weekend, after already postponing Friday's game earlier this week.
MLB's official statement read that "Out of an abundance of caution and to allow for additional testing and contact tracing to be performed within the New York Mets’ organization, the games between the Mets and New York Yankees at Citi Field on Saturday, August 22nd and Sunday, August 23rd have been postponed. Major League Baseball will continue to provide updates as necessary."
Friday’s Subway Series opener, as well as the Mets’ scheduled game Thursday night in Miami, were postponed on Thursday night after one Mets player and one Mets staffer tested positive for COVID-19. The Mets had been scheduled to fly home from Miami Thursday night but were initially held in Florida after that announcement, but per Tim Healey of Newsday, most of the team’s traveling party eventually returned home as scheduled.
A morning Mets update: They do not have a team workout scheduled today, source says.They were tested for COVID-19 last night upon arriving in New York and again this morning.An unidentified number of Mets stayed in Miami along with the player and coach who tested positive.— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) August 21, 2020The Yankees and Mets are scheduled to play the Bronx half of the Subway Series from Aug. 28-30, and both teams do have a scheduled day off Monday, so it is possible the two teams could play all six of their scheduled contests next week in some form.
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College Basketball Insider: There Will Be an NCAA Tournament in 2021
It remains to be seen how – or if – college football will unfold in 2020, but CBS Sports college basketball guru Jon Rothstein is extremely confident that an NCAA Tournament will occur in 2021.
“This much I can tell you: We are going to have an NCAA Tournament, and that means we’re going to have college basketball before [that] because there has to be inventory in place to seed an NCAA Tournament,” Rothstein said on The Zach Gelb Show. “This is what I can tell you: The decision-makers, the people of influence, are looking specifically at the window between the latter days of November around Thanksgiving and the early days of January as a pivotal time to get non-conference inventory played.”
Now, how does that happen? What does the format look like? Where will the games be played? Time will tell.
“Nobody really knows,” Rothstein said. “I do know that following the success of the NBA restart in Orlando, one of the the things that I’m hearing is Orlando is being looked at as a unified location where several non-conference tournaments could be played at one venue in a safe situation in a bubble-type scenario. Obviously if you have multiple tournaments going on, two or three days after that tournament is done, you’ll have more teams to potentially play more scheduled games down the road. So there’s a lot of speculating on speculation, but this is something that is not speculating at all. There will be an NCAA Tournament in 2021.”
Thursday’s Game in Miami Postponed as Two Mets Test Positive For COVID
Just when it looked like MLB had all its COVID ducks in a row. MLB Network insider Jon Heyman reports that Thursday’s Mets/Marlins series finale in Miami will no longer take place.
Mets have a Covid case. Game tonight postponed.— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) August 20, 2020The game was postponed after two Mets—one coach and one player—tested positive for COVID-19. With the team likely stranded in Miami, the Mets' upcoming three-game set against the Yankees is also in jeopardy with Friday's series opener already postponed, per beat writer Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
Official, from MLB: Tomorrow's Subway Series opener between the Mets and Yankees has also been postponed.— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) August 20, 2020The Mets, winners of three straight, become the 15th team to have a game postponed over COVID concerns. Seth Lugo (in what would have been his first start since 2018) and Marlins rookie Daniel Castano had been the scheduled starters for Thursday’s 6:10 first pitch. Per Heyman, the Mets will return to the Big Apple later tonight. The player and coach who tested positive, along with any teammates who were in close contact, will not accompany the team back to New York.
It’s unclear when the Mets will receive the green light to resume playing. So far, COVID hiatuses in MLB have ranged from as little as four days (the Reds) to as many as 17, which is how long the Cardinals were shelved before making their return last weekend against the White Sox. The Mets released a statement regarding Thursday’s postponement, acknowledging their COVID outbreak without revealing the identities of anyone who tested positive for the virus. No makeup date has been announced for Thursday’s postponement. The Mets aren’t scheduled to return to Miami this season, though New York is slated to host the Marlins for a three-game set in Queens next week.
#Mets statement regarding tonight’s and Friday’s game. pic.twitter.com/rtLqGZnCaw— New York Mets (@Mets) August 20, 2020LISTEN NOW on the RADIO.COM AppFollow RADIO.COM SportsTwitter I Facebook I Instagram
Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald: Lack Of Consistency In College Football 'Definitely An Issue'
(670 The Score) Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald has been in a football training camp every August since 1982. But he isn't now.
The Big Ten made the decision last week to call off fall sports, including football, during the coronavirus pandemic. The decision has drawn plenty of criticism, especially as conferences like the SEC, ACC and Big 12 prepare to play this fall.
Fitzgerald admits he's struggling to grasp the decision and the lack of transparency that came with it, he told the Mully & Haugh Show on Thursday morning.
"Well, it's a tough time, no question," Fitzgerald said. "There's a ton of uncertainty. (Players) have done everything that we've asked them to do here at Northwestern, from a social decision-making standpoint. We were here for almost 10 weeks. The guys just did a terrific job being disciplined and getting prepared for the season. And then to have that abruptly taken away, there are quite a few guys, especially our seniors, that are really looking for answers, really frustrated and hoping to continue to have an opportunity to play. It's been a really challenging time.
"Health and safety is the No. 1 priority. It always has been, and it always will be. I don't think you're going to hear one of the 14 coaches in our league ever have an issue with a decision being made based on health and safety. We'd just like to hear the why behind it and help understand so we can help educate our players and create some solutions going forward.
"The lack of consistency (in college football), yeah, it's definitely an issue. When you look at Power 5 football right now, it's very fractured and it's obviously fractured. I've seen a lot of things that have been said at other leagues and I'm not sure they don't have the same challenges that we have."
Purdue coach Jeff Brohm created a plan for college football to be played in the spring, which remains a possibility for the Big Ten. For his part, Fitzgerald favors the idea of starting training camp this winter and playing early in 2021, which would allow the resumption of a normal football calendar for a fall season as well.
"What our focus should be is to do everything we can to have fall of 2021, next training camp and beyond, try to get back to normal," Fitzgerald said. "And if we can move forward as far back as we can to be able to have a modified season in the winter, I think that's something we can definitely do if we work with our doctors and talk about being really intelligent and smart.
"If we can work with our medical staffs locally and then as a conference and move something up potentially to have something in the winter instead of spring practice, I think our guys would be pretty darned excited about that."
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