Reports: NFL offers NFLPA plan to cancel preseason games
Jul 20, 2020, 4:53 PM | Updated: 9:50 pm
General view outside of State Farm Stadium before the NFL preseason game between the Oakland Raiders and the Arizona Cardinals 1on August 15, 2019 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Despite reported earlier plans to reduce the 2020 preseason to only two games, the NFL has now offered the NFL Players Association to cancel the preseason entirely, per multiple reports.
NFLPA president J.C. Tretter said earlier this month that players don’t want to play any preseason games and want a 48-day training camp schedule to give them more time to prepare for the season and avoid injuries. He cited an increase in injuries following the 2011 lockout.
The league had reportedly already decided to cut the preseason schedule from four games to two and pushed back the start of exhibition play an extra week to give teams more time to prepare because the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of on-field workouts.
“When we asked for a medical reason to play games that don’t count in the standings during an ongoing pandemic, the NFL failed to provide one,” Tretter wrote.
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The Cardinals’ original preseason schedule, which is still official at the moment, has them at Green Bay, home vs. Kansas City, at Las Vegas and home against Denver in that order.
Tretter told Doug & Wolf on Arizona Sports this month that his union wants the NFL to treat the upcoming season through a “medical lens” rather than eyeing something close to normalcy.
“Every decision you make this year that decides to stand with normalcy of what has always gone on versus what should go on during a pandemic — if you make a decision based on normalcy, it’s going to cause a more likelihood that we don’t get through the season,” Tretter said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
