NFL Planning To Test Players' Families For COVID-19

How will the NFL proceed with reopening team facilities?

A lot is expected to go into reopening the NFL team facilities this month or in early August. Testing players for COVID-19 is obviously a must-do task, but as of this week, testing every players' family and/or roommates is becoming another.

NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reports the NFL and NFLPA are still finalizing their testing protocols, but the expectation as of Monday is that not only will every player be tested regularly, but anyone "cohabiting" with NFL players will be part of the "initial COVID-19 screening." According to Pelissero, that includes undergoing a test for coronavirus and the antibody test.

Pelissero explained the scenario in more detail in a video, which was posted on Twitter on Monday:

The NFL and NFLPA are still finalizing testing protocols, but the expectation is players’ families — and anyone else players are cohabitating with — will be part of initial COVID-19 screening. All part of ecosystem they’ll rely on to make football work. @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/tJUv9Whwr8

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 6, 2020

For most players, this part of the protocol will mean players' families being tested for coronavirus, which isn't a bad idea at all. If someone living with an NFL player contracts the virus somewhere else, they could bring it into the league since the virus spreads so easily among people not keeping six-feet of social distance. Testing family members helps the NFL cover all of its bases.

But keep in mind, there's plenty of fringe NFL players who aren't millionaires who potentially live with roommates to lower their cost of living. Anybody living with those players will also have to be tested.

As has been the case for most of the offseason, the NFL seems to be taking the proper steps towards reopening and protecting the community from spreading the virus, but the question now becomes how to implement the plan. How all the testing is paid for could be a question mark as well like it is in college football at the moment.