With COVID-19 still being a prevalent issue today, students are questioning whether the National Football League will have a successful season. Football fans on campus think the season will be a challenge but are optimistic about what’s to come.
The first game of the 2020 season was on Thursday, Sept. 10, between the Houston Texans and the Kansas City Chiefs. Fans on campus were excited for the start of the season.
“The NFL should still have a season,” Tori Delusant, a senior early education major, said. “As long as all teams, coaches and other staff take the proper precautions to this virus, then everything will be fine.”
Delusant thinks that the NFL season will not end early because of COVID-19. It has been confirmed that there were already positive cases on teams. She says that if players wipe down their equipment after games it will automatically reduce the chances of the virus spreading to others.
Most of the 32 NFL teams chose to have empty stadiums this season. Only six will have a reduced crowd at games.
“It definitely is weird,” Amanda Lynn, a senior early education major, said. “Just because it’s not as loud as you’d hear on the TV normally.”
“I think not having fans makes it harder to enjoy the game,” Delusant said. She believes that if everyone is socially distant and takes the correct precautions that there should be some fans let into the stadium for games. “I understand for right now not having fans but this cannot continue,” Delusant said.
Students are saying that it will be an adjustment to having fake crowd noise pumped into the games as well as empty seats. “You’re so used to looking at these shots of the stadiums and there’s tens of thousands of people packed in there,” Ryan Chybinski, a sophomore digital communication and social media major, said.
“If you think about it, they are all sharing a locker room together then it (COVID-19) is going to spread really fast,” Lynn said. Seeing how fast they react to a positive case will determine if games are postponed or even canceled, she said.
“It could get to a point where there is a second wave and it hits and they are going to have to postpone their games,” Chris Schaller, a sophomore digital communication and social media major, said. He also said that he might see the NFL having a “bubble” for the playoffs.
The NBA and NHL successfully had their seasons inside of a “bubble.” Schaller believes that having a bubble for the playoffs could happen if need be.
“There is a possibility of having games postponed,” Chybinski said. But he thinks the season will see its way to the end.
