The NFL is coming back. High School Football is coming back. Youth Football is coming back. College football…. Not so sure about that. We’ve already seen a number of teams talk about changing season plans. The Big 10 is going conference only. The PAC is talking about the same. Ivy shut it down. I think the conversation is being shaped by a loss in profit. We know games cannot be played with full stadiums and that revenue helps to keep the lights on in those stadiums. High schools like youth are funded by the students themselves and that guaranteed income creates a sense of necessity for those programs to play.
There is no absolutely safe way to play contact football. The new (soon to be mandated) face shields will take a important step forward, but there is of course a general risk.
I am in the mindset to wait and see what the schools do. So far what they are doing is playing–they are stalling the public announcement, but we all know what is what. My kids start back to practice on the 29th. The school still wants me to coach and I am still resisting. In truth, I will not do it because I have no desire to coach my kids past a certain point (fly on your own l’il bird) and I don’t want to devote my time in that manner.
At the very least we know NFL is happening in some form and that does mean fantasy. I’ll be starting that discussion next Wednesday.