Infectious Disease Expert On How NFL Can Safely Play Season

Dr. William Schaffner says players will have to go to great lengths off the field to stay on the field.

NFL players will have more than just Xs and Os to learn this summer. They will also need to make lifestyle changes off the field to ensure they are on it when games are played.

That is the way Dr. Willam Schaffner, an infectious disease expert and professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University, sees it. In an exclusive interview with AllTitans, Dr. Schaffner talked about potential changes that likely must be made in order to play a season uninterrupted while the COVID-19 pandemic continues to run its course.

As a close-contact sport, football carries a lot of on-field risks. Schaffner said masks may be required, and social distancing measures may be implemented on the sidelines. But the biggest changes need to be made off the field.

“It would have to be an awful lot of instruction in terms of how the players ought to behave off of the field,” Schaffner said. “That’s where the risk is. It’s not so much on the field, it’s off of the field. Do they stay away from people? Are they sheltering in place? Do they wear masks when they’re out and about? Are they practicing good hand hygiene?”

Adjustments will be needed in locker rooms, too, according to Schaffner, who serves on NCAA’s COVID-19 consultative committee. Those are areas that have the potential to be a high-risk environment for the coronavirus.

“You can keep a lot of people out of the locker room who don’t absolutely need to be in it,” Schaffner said. “Sports reporters and a lot of other people. I am sure we could thin that out pretty quickly. I don’t know how you could space out the lockers to give everyone more room, but with all of these things, you've got to do the best you can.

“If players are going to be close together, masks should be worn. Hand hygiene should be very available. People in close proximity within closed spaces are exactly the environments this virus likes.”

As parts of America’s economy begin to reopen, the NFL has begun to do the same. Starting Tuesday, franchises that meet state and local regulations can open to select personnel, excluding players and coaches. The Titans will not be one of those teams. All offseason activity will continue to be virtual through May 29.

According to Schaffner, in order to have a season, the NFL also must have the ability to frequently test players, staff and other personnel. He noted that anecdotal evidence suggests the league is working to implement a comprehensive program.

“I had heard that they are thinking of testing players, bringing them into a city where a game is going to be played the night before, sequestering the teams and the people in the inner bubble and getting them tests that night,” Schaffner said. “They would send them to a major commercial laboratory. They could have the answers by the next morning. Hopefully, everyone would be cleared to play. Obviously, there would be consequences if there were positives. I had heard that some of that planning was going on. I don’t know how far along it’s gone.”

The changes might not stop with those who work for the team and the league. Each year, millions of fans pack NFL stadiums across the country.

In 2020, it’s possible that contests could take place in empty venues. No determination has been made in that regard. The first preseason games are nearly three months away and the regular season is not scheduled to start until a month after that.

“I have no idea how it will work out,” Schaffner said. “I don’t know what is going to happen over the course of the summer. If COVID abates, if there’s a seasonal effect on COVID, if it doesn’t transmit as much over the summer, and cases diminish, there will be an eagerness to open things up again.”

And if that’s what happens, he added, the NFL will need to approach the situation with care. A late fall, early winter COVID-19 flare-up is possible.

“Then we might have to step back again,” Schaffner said. “I can’t predict now what those answers are going to be. A lot of my medical colleagues think that if we have a resurgence, we will revert to some of the lockdown that we’ve gone through. My own sense of it is, we ain’t gonna do that. This has been so tough economically. It has had such an adverse impact on the way our society functions, and the way it generates finances for so many people who have been seriously hurt. I don’t think we’re going back, but some of the discussion about reducing the crowds and large gatherings will come up. That’s for sure. There will be a lot of discussion and evaluation.”

With a summer filled with uncertainty looming, only one thing can be said for certain: sports as we knew them will look and feel drastically different when they return.

But now more than ever, Americans need them.

“The difficulties are enormous,” Schaffner said. “Sports are a part of life. Ever since two cavemen decided to run a dash to see who was fastest, sports have been part of our environment. People love them. People love to participate in them. People love to be entertained by them. Sports have huge economic impacts. Not just for the players, but for the communities. We’re trying to bring them back as safely as possible.

“… We should never think about making things safe. That sounds absolute. What we’re trying to do is reduce the risk. This is a risk reduction enterprise.”