Hometown Broadcasting Sports Friday 5/8/20
8 May 2020 Sports
The 2020 NFL schedule has been released and the Packers will open defense of their NFC North crown with a Week 1 road game at the Vikings. They have five primetime games and end the season at Chicago. Since the Vikings’ inaugural year in 1961, Green Bay has never opened a regular season on the road against Minnesota. The last time the Packers even played their longtime NFC North rival in Week 1 was for Aaron Rodgers’ first NFL start on Sept. 8, 2008, a 24-19 victory at Lambeau Field. For the first time in five years, the Packers will close the regular season against a team other than the Detroit Lions. Their Week 17 meeting with the Bears will be the teams’ first finale since Green Bay’s memorable 33-28 win over Chicago in a winner-take-all game for the NFC North title in 2013, highlighted by a game-winning 48-yard touchdown from Rodgers to Randall Cobb. The Packers again will be in the national spotlight this year with five primetime games, including guaranteed back-to-back bookings against the NFC South. The Packers will travel in Week 3 to play the New Orleans Saints on Sunday Night Football before returning home to host the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football in Week 4.
The third primetime game Green Bay is locked in for will occur in Week 9 when the Packers travel to face the San Francisco 49ers (Nov. 5) on Thursday Night Football. Green Bay is also penciled in to host Sunday night games against Chicago in Week 12 (three days after Thanksgiving) and Tennessee in Week 16, though both games are subject to change due to the league’s flex scheduling in Weeks 5-16. The Packers’s bye week is Week 5 before they depart for a highly anticipated road game against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The following week, the Packers begin a gauntlet of three consecutive games against teams coming off playoff appearances in 2019: at Houston, vs. Minnesota and at San Francisco.
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The NFL has set protocols for reopening team facilities and has told the 32 teams to have them in place by May 15.
In a memo sent by Commissioner Roger Goodell and obtained Wednesday night by The Associated Press, several phases of the protocols were laid out. The first phase to deal with the coronavirus pandemic would involve a limited number of non-player personnel, initially 50% of the non-player employees (up to a total of 75) on any single day, being approved to be at the facility. But state or local regulations could require a lower number.
The individual clubs would decide which employees could return to the facility and when once facilities reopen. No players would be permitted in the facility except to continue therapy and rehabilitation for injuries that was underway when facilities were ordered closed in late March by Goodell.
“While these protocols have been carefully developed and reflect best practices,” Goodell wrote, “they can also be adapted and supplemented to ensure compliance with any state and local public health requirements.”
Goodell noted that the league is actively working on the next phase of reopening, which will involve both more staffers, and players. He said the players’ union is also being consulted on these steps. Those protocols are not yet fully developed.
Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s medical director, will speak with each team physician and the infection control officer to discuss implementation and medical aspects of the protocols.
The step-by-step requirements are:
–Local and state government officials must consent to reopening.
–The team must implement all operational guidelines set by the league to minimize the risk of virus transmission among employees.
–Each club must acquire adequate amounts of needed supplies as prescribed by the league.
–An Infection Response Team with a written plan for newly diagnosed coronavirus cases. –An Infection Control Officer to oversee all aspects of the implementation of the listed guidelines.
–Each employee who returns to work at the club facility must receive COVID-19 safety and hygiene training prior to using the facility, and agree to report health information to the ICO.
—The response team must consist of a local physician with expertise in common infectious disease principles; the team physician can fill that role. Also on the response team will be the infection control officer, the team’s head athletic trainer; the team physician, if he or she is not serving as the local physician; the human resources director; the team’s chief of security; its mental health clinician or someone with equivalent clinical expertise; and a member of the club’s operations staff such as the facility manager.
The league also is establishing workplace protocols that require face coverings unless a person is in a closed office. The orders also stress minimum contact, sufficient distancing, the gradual and phased return to in-person work, and continued “telework” and remote meetings to reduce the number of people at the facility. That includes adjusted hours and even shifts across all employees.
Business travel is discouraged unless essential. Visitors and service providers on site will be limited and there will be no direct contact with fans — no retail activity or in- person ticket sales.
Employees, including players, of course, will be encouraged to take their temperature routinely at home before heading to the team facility and to remain at home if their temperature is elevated. There will be daily screenings for all employees reporting to work, as well as visitors, contractors, and service providers who enter the club facility.
“We will continue to work in a deliberate and thoughtful way to plan for the 2020 season, including with (Thursday night’s) schedule release,” Goodell said, “and we will be prepared to address any contingencies as they arise.”
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Major League Baseball expects to offer a return-to-play proposal to the MLB Players Association within a week, as teams have begun to encourage players to prepare for a “spring” training that could begin in mid-June and a season that could start in early July, sources familiar with the discussions told ESPN.
Although a significant number of hurdles remain and some industry leaders believe June and July return dates are overly optimistic, ownership’s approval of a plan and dialogue about specifics with the union would mark two vital steps toward baseball’s return from a season so far delayed six weeks by the coronavirus pandemic.
General managers and managers from at least a dozen teams have reached out to players to suggest that they ramp up baseball activities, those familiar with the conversations — including executives, players and agents — told ESPN. Some teams have suggested that players prepare for a spring training that could begin as early as June 10 and a season that could begin July 1, dates first suggested publicly by former player Trevor Plouffe. Other teams, sources said, are being more general in their timetables, understanding the complications that hard dates can cause and wanting instead to nudge players toward being in game shape. It also must meet approval from the Major League Baseball Players Union.
Already, dozens of players are working out at team facilities around the country.
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FOND DU LAC, WI – The Fond du Lac Dock Spiders were scheduled to open their 2020
season on Tuesday, May 26th, but the Northwoods League released the following
statement Thursday morning postponing the start of the 2020 season.
“The Northwoods League continues to closely monitor the developments related to
COVID-19 and the different ways in which each sub-region in the Northwoods League is responding. Fan, player, and personnel safety remains our primary focus. Because the situation changes almost daily, and differently in each area where the League operates, our approach is to remain creative, nimble, and adaptable to how each situation unfolds throughout the entire League footprint so that where and when baseball can safely be played, it will be played.
However, as of today, because of the regime of governmental restrictions currently
in effect and their resulting impact on the League’s ability to maintain a workable
schedule, the May 26th opening date for Northwoods League teams has been postponed
indefinitely league-wide. The League will continue to monitor the specific
situation in each of the communities where it operates to see where play might
safely commence, consider the league-wide impacts of each location’s status, and
will adjust various contingency plans accordingly. Following this process, the
League will continue to make frequent assessments, taking into consideration any
local and state-wide updates, and will immediately communicate any further changes
to the status of the League schedule.”
Dock Spiders staff and personnel will continue to update all fans, season ticket
holders, sponsors, host families, staff, and other supporters with future updates as they become available.
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