While the country’s other professional sports have been postponed indefinitely by the coronavirus pandemic, the NFL still intends to begin the 2020 season on time.
“That’s my expectation,” NFL executive vice president and general counsel Jeff Pash said Tuesday on a conference call. “Am I certain? I’m not certain I will be here tomorrow. But I’m planning on it, and in the same way, I’m planning on having a full season.”
According to Pash, the NFL remains focused on playing the season in full, as scheduled, and “in front of fans in our regular stadiums.” Much of that plan, of course, will depend on public-health recommendations related to COVID-19, he said, and the potential extension of the limiting of large gatherings to stem the spread of the virus.
“We’re still in March, so it’s quite a few months between now and when our season would begin,” Pash said. “The belief and the information that we have is leading us to continue on focusing on a season that starts on time and played in a normal way.”
NFL training camps are scheduled to begin in late July, followed by the regular season in early September. Pash added that schedules are slated to be released May 9.
Pash also said the league remains committed to staging all five of its scheduled international games in 2020 (four in London and one in Mexico City), pending medical and governmental approval in Great Britain and Mexico.
The NFL also announced Tuesday that it officially will expand its playoffs to include 14 teams, with the league’s owners voting to add one wild-card team in each conference beginning with the 2020 season.
The new format will include four division winners and three wild cards in both the AFC and the NFC, with only the No. 1 seed in each conference earning a bye week in the opening weekend of the playoffs.
The six remaining division winners will host games in the first round, with three games played on Saturday, Jan. 9 and three more on Sunday, Jan. 10. The NFL previously expanded the playoffs from 10 to 12 teams for the 1990 season.