After a string of COVID outbreaks throughout the NFL that only seem to happen once everyone thinks they have finally stopped happening, that has caused the NFL to reshuffle the schedule multiple times, many are wondering what greater measures will have to be taken if the rate of outbreaks does not slow down. Although they have pushed against it, the NFL may have to add weeks to the end of the season in order to accommodate teams that have or will lose games due to quarantining. “We could move the Super Bowl back as far as four weeks,” Packers owner Mark Murphy said during his team’s virtual pep rally. “Obviously, we’d prefer not to do that, but you do have that flexibility if we run into a number of outbreaks with different teams or if we have to kind of move the schedule back.”
The Pro Bowl has already been canceled and there is no real rush to finish the season by the start of February. It may create some competitive disadvantages if teams which remain COVID-free since they will have an extended layoff before the playoffs. But it is hard to avoid competitive disadvantages in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. I doubt there will be a decision on this anytime soon. If this past offseason is any indication then the NFL will push this off until the very last moment. But with the state that the NFL is in, they might have no choice but to add weeks.
