USA TODAY Sports
At the end of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s press conference on Thursday, he was joined on stage by DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association, for a few minutes.
The two men made the way in which cooperation between the NFL and NFLPA in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic possible the 2020 season possible because they worked together to find solutions to major problems. One of the solutions was to run off-season programs remotely, and the fact that it did not result in a negative outcome on the field will lead to further discussions about what off-season looks like there.
The president of the NFLPA and the Browns Center, JC Tretter, said at the end of the regular season that the experience of this season should lead to permanent changes to the off-season, and said at the NFLPA press conference on Thursday that he and others feel ‘physically better and mentally sharper’ than they have been in recent years. He attributed this to avoiding the ‘never-ending meal’ of a typical year and Smith reflected the comments.
‘I think every one of these guys who have lived in a football world for a very long time has seen their teams do a lot of things differently, but let’s just put it differently. It was smarter, “said Smith. ‘That the fact that you guys had not been in a facility for hours on end, but just lost time. The fact that we are able to do things via teleconferencing and Skype and Zoom is about getting smarter. At the end of the day, what will happen is that we have our annual rep meetings in March. We will continue to talk to the players about the things that they think were a better and smarter way to play football, and I think some of those things mostly have nothing to do with COVID. ‘
Goodell said at his press conference that it was too early to know exactly what the off-season and the 2021 season would look like there, but said that ‘virtually will be a part of our lives’ in the future. How much of a role it will play will be discussed this off-season.