$100 million, 954,830 tests and no cancellations: How the NFL got through the season

01/29/2021

ESPN.com national NFL writer
ESPN.com NFC North reporter, 2008-2013
Covered Vikings for Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1999-2008

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes had his barber tested for COVID-19 to ensure a safe trim. Then he turned to a game of Uno for late-night entertainment.

Lions QB Matthew Stafford spent a week isolated in a hotel, traveled by private plane to Minneapolis and started a game without taking a single practice snap.

Michael Dunn, a Browns offensive lineman, prepared for a playoff start by working through drills in the parking lot of an apartment building. His girlfriend assisted by calling out faux signals.

On it went. The Broncos converted a practice-squad receiver on a day’s notice to serve as a starting quarterback. Jets quarterback Sam Darnold put his extended family through NFL protocols so he could visit with them for Christmas. Coaching staffs around the league game-planned virtually for months, even when they were sitting in offices next door to each other at team facilities. And two head coaches even watched a game from home while interim coaches manned the sideline.

NFL players and staff upended their lives to make it through the 2020 season, which will come to an end on Feb. 7 with Super Bowl LV. They reprogrammed their long-held football habits, suspended their sense of competitive equity and embraced a well-funded and turbo-charged version of the COVID-19 mitigation efforts that the entire country has been advised to follow.

The results were better than anyone could have imagined. When veterans reported to training camp on July 28, positive coronavirus cases in the United States had already reached 4.3 million in the four-plus months since the epidemic changed the country’s way of life, and more than 140,000 people had died from the virus. (Nationwide cases have now surpassed 25 million.) Many questioned the viability of completing a full season, and those concerns only grew when an outbreak hit the Titans in Week 4. But in the end, the NFL postponed just five of its 256 regular-season games to allow outbreaks to run their course, and moved 10 others to accommodate them, but none were canceled. How’d the league do it?

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