Will The NFL 2020 Season Be Played? ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit Would Be ‘Surprised’ If So

At the moment, the NFL is acting as though the 2020 season is going to be unaffected by the coronavirus. The same can’t be said for the preseason. Talk has begun about how the league is going to handle the draft and training camps. At the same time, rumors have suggested that September is far enough away that the fall camps and the season should be able to kick off as normal. Count ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit among those who don’t believe that can — or should — be the case.

According to CBS Local in Boston, Herbstreit wants to put a hold on both the National Football League and NCAA football campaigns until having big crowds are truly safe. He appeared on ESPN Radio earlier this week and voiced his real concern on either season taking place this fall.

“I’ll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football. I’ll be so surprised if that happens. As much as I hate to say it, I think we’re scratching the surface of where this thing’s gonna go.”

Herbstreit added the length of time it’s going to take to produce a vaccine is the real issue. He talked about how he heard it will be 12 to 18 months before one is produced, tested, and then mass-produced.

Herbstreit added he just doesn’t understand how people can let players go into locker rooms and allow stadiums to fill up with the virus still on the loose. He also talked about what fans are going to think if there’s a locker room that ends up with a bunch of sick guys. There’s the safety of the athletes and fans at stake, but there is also the liability issue when it comes to the NFL.

The NBA suspended its season rather quickly when it found out one of its players had coronavirus, as Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert passed the virus onto at least one teammate. Herbstreit is clearly concerned the same kind of thing could happen in the NFL before anyone had time to react and adjust.

The ESPN analyst isn’t the only one who is worried about seasons being shortened or even canceled altogether. Several college football authorities have discussed several different approaches to the fall. While they are still looking at models that would shorten the season — or have the season without fans in attendance — it doesn’t solve the problem of players in the locker room. Herbstreit has put a voice to something several NFL and other professional officials have supposedly been talking about since the outbreak started to rage in the United States.