The upcoming NFL season is going to be one of the hardest to predict in a very long time. For the average sportbettor who loved to have a flutter on American Football before 2020, the landscape has completely changed. The odds offered for all the major teams look the same, but after the chaos of the opt-out pre-season, an online NFL draft and now the return of fans to stadiums, punters don’t know where to turn for value.

The Miami Dolphins decision to allow Fins fans to come to the season opener in Florida’s Hard Rock Stadium is a controversial one and has attracted criticism from some quarters. But is it the right one? Will it help The Dolphins to success in a season few predict big things for them?

The Miami Dolphins won the Super Bowl in consecutive seasons in 1972 and 1973, but since then have never won it, despite being the only team in NFL history to finish an entire season undefeated in the first of their two Super Bowl victories. 

This season, Miami are welcoming 13,000 fans to the Hard Rock Stadium, using social distancing of six feet between fan groups to fill up around 20% of the stadium’s seats with home supporters. Their first game will take place on 20th September against the Buffalo Bills – who won’t have fans in attendance at Orchard Park this season – and Bills coach Sean McDermott isn’t happy that there will be fans present for his team’s visit to South Florida.

This is the time that everyone should be in full training mode – running drills with full pads, fine-tuning their offenses and defenses and even participating in preseason games. The NFL regular season is set to get underway in 17 days, but events over this past weekend are forcing many teams to scramble. Several had to call off practices completely over sudden surges in positive coronavirus tests, and any outbreak now would be devastating to the NFL’s plans to start on time. However, football fans – as well as the league – are breathing a sigh of relief, as it appears the positive test results were nothing more than false positives, and they were all traced back to one particular lab in New Jersey.

The Minnesota Vikings had 12 false positives over the weekend, the New York Jets had ten and the Chicago Bears had nine. The Cleveland Browns also had some, and became the first team to cancel its practices. The Jets then followed on Saturday, but practiced on Sunday, and the Bears shifted their practice from the morning to the afternoon after they determined that the results were nothing more than false positives. The Vikings decided to bench those who had tested positive and keep them out of Sunday’s practice. Other teams impacted include the Buffalo Bills, the Detroit Lions, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In trying to determine why there was a sudden spike in the number of positive cases, the NFL was able to trace the problem to a single lab in New Jersey operated by BioReference. The league issued a statement about the issue, explaining, “Saturday’s daily COVID testing returned several positives tests from each of the clubs serviced by the same laboratory in New Jersey. We are working with our testing partner, BioReference, to investigate these results, while the clubs work to confirm or rule out the positive tests. Clubs are taking immediate precautionary measures as outlined in the NFL-NFLPA’s health and safety protocols to include contact tracing, isolation of individuals and temporarily adjusting the schedule, where appropriate. The other laboratories used for NFL testing have not had similar results.”

That’s good news and bad news for the NFL. It’s great because it could mean that there won’t be any issues as the league looks to get going on September 10. However, it is still concerning, because there needs to be definitive proof of no widespread COVID-19 appearance for the season to kick off. It also could be a financial loss to the league if it has to pay for all the tests to be retaken, instead of the lab assuming that cost. 

The countdown to the 2020 NFL season, hopefully, continues on schedule, and the first game will be held on September 10 if everything goes according to plan. For that to happen, the league has put together a special committee to oversee its response to issues that may arise from the COVID-19 pandemic, calling upon the assistance of individuals intimately familiar with football, but who are no longer part of the league. Their goal is to help the NFL throughout the season as it looks to prevent any major coronavirus-caused catastrophes like those seen in MLB. 

According to different sources, the NFL’s advisory committee will be working hand-in-hand with commissioner Roger Goodell to address any issue that comes up as the year progresses. The group includes former cornerback Champ Bailey, former receiver Isaac Bruce, former GM Charley Casserly, former head coach Tom Coughlin, former head coach Marvin Lewis, former safety Troy Polamalu, former GM Bill Polian and former GM Rick Smith. 

Notably, the committee doesn’t include any health officials, a point that draws a little unwanted attention to the group. While all of the members of the committee have extensive football experience, the coronavirus warrants participation by at least one or two members of the health community, and the absence of these would seem to indicate that the group will often have to seek outside opinions before certain decisions can be made, which might slow down the implementation of any policies or procedures.

The idea behind the committee’s creation is to give the commissioner assistance in making decisions related to scheduling, seeding and more. However, each has a component directly linked to COVID-19 that cannot be ignored. The members selected for inclusion needed to be external to current league or team operations in order to avoid any possible appearance of conflict of interest and propel a sense of fairness across the board in all decisions the committee makes. 

Fans of American football living in parts of Europe have something to look forward to this season. Watching NFL games live can be difficult due to lack of broadcasting options, as well as time zone differences. At least one of these is controllable and is about to change. Fans in the UK and Ireland will now have much easier access to games each week, thanks to a new agreement reached between the league and major European TV broadcaster Sky. An entire channel dedicated to nothing but the NFL is about to be launched ahead of the upcoming season.

Sports Business reports that the deal will run from the upcoming season, set to get underway on September 10, through the 2024-25 season. Sky Sports NFL will provide coverage of at least five games a week, as well as some Sunday games, all playoff contests, the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl. There will also be additional programming thrown in to cover the gaps when live games aren’t being aired. 

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says in a statement, “This new five-year agreement and the launch of a dedicated Sky Sports NFL channel will undoubtedly continue our rapid growth in the UK and Ireland. We are excited that our expanded partnership with Sky will provide even more NFL content to our millions of UK and Irish fans.”

The NFL and Sky have had a working relationship in place for the past 25 years, but this is the first time the league is getting a dedicated channel on the network. It will give NFL greater exposure across the UK and Ireland, where it has held one or two games annually for the past several years. This upcoming season would have included four games if it hadn’t been for the COVID-19 debacle. England has consistently been seen as a worthwhile springboard for further league expansion into Europe. 

A lot of bad news has come out in recent months regarding the Washington Football Team and its majority owner Dan Snyder. Believing this was possibly a setup, Snyder has now gone to court to see if he can prove this was an elaborate scheme to push him out of his ownership position.

The New York Times reports Snyder has filed for discovery in the Federal District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, requesting documents about former employee Mary-Ellen Blair, who was an executive assistance in the front office. The legal reason for the discovery request is to support his defamation case against Media Entertainment Arts WorldWide, an Indian company, who Snyder contends published defamatory rumors about him and the team.

“We are aggressively pursuing Mary-Ellen Blair, a disgruntled former employee who is clearly in the pocket of another and complicit in this scheme to defame Mr. Snyder, in order to ensure that the full weight of the law comes down heavily on all those responsible for these heinous acts,” said Joe Tacopina, a lawyer of Snyder’s.

Snyder contends that Blair started reaching out to former employees as early as May, asking for information that could be used against him. The discovery notes Blair contacted one employee, telling them they could “probably make a lot of money” if they had dirt on Snyder.

The NFL team formerly known as the Washington Redskins finally caved against overwhelming pressure to change its name this past July, but has yet to offer an alternative. The brass at the franchise is busy with damage control over reports of widespread sexual harassment that has already led to at least five employees, either by force or by choice, announcing their departures. However, it plans on surviving the drama and is making preparations to start the upcoming NFL season along with the rest of the teams. While the team, now simply called the Washington Football Team, may not have a viable name, at least they’ll have pretty helmets. 

The team posted a video on Twitter yesterday, unveiling the new helmets as it announced “exciting news.” The individual affixing numbers to the helmet, which will use the same color scheme the team has used for decades, can’t be seen, but he’s applying “20,” which is the number worn by safety Landon Collins. Notably absent from the helmet is any type of logo, moniker, drawing or even shadow, giving the helmet the appearance of being something one would see out of a low-budget rural community college. Previously, the helmets carried the Redskins logo, with the player’s number nowhere on the protective headgear.

Reactions to the changes have been mixed. Some haven’t been afraid to show their opinion of fashionable by supporting the changes, while others recognize that they leave something to be desired. One Twitter user, Dominic Lucente, pointed out, “Looks like a college football helmet but that seems appropriate. You have been playing like a college football team going on many years now.” In the past decade, the former Redskins only had winning seasons twice. Another tweeter aptly summed things up, responding to the team’s announcement by saying, “I don’t think you know what ‘exciting’ means.” 

The regular NFL season is expected to get underway on September 10, providing the coronavirus doesn’t force the league to make any last-minute changes. It has already had to scrap the All-Star Game and the preseason games, but everything else seems to, at least for the time being, remain on schedule. If it does, this could be a great fall for sports fans everywhere. 

The latest scandal to hit the NFL comes at the worst possible time. With over 50 players having taken the league up on the ‘Opt-Out’ option, preferring the $350,000 and their family’s guaranteed health over running the risk of catching COVID-19, new rules have come into place to coincide with the deadline for pre-season opt-outs being confirmed as this coming Thursday.

Just the other day, an incredible eighth New England Patriot was confirmed among the latest raft of opt-outs, with Matt LaCosse choosing to give the 2020 NFL season a miss. The NFL had to act and they have done, confirming exactly what will happen to anyone else who decides to opt out, and when.

With a busy page on the NFL’s official site now dedicated to what has been a largely chaotic start to training camps up and down the United States of America, the NFL announced that issues have been resolved and they’ve finally got a procedure in place, along with fines for players who opt out without good reason. With over 50 opt-outs already, this smacks a little of a nightclub putting together a new set of rules for bouncers at nine the next morning after the dancefloor was empty at midnight.

The deadline for pre-season opt-outs is Thursday August 6th at 4pm Eastern Time, with players informed of the cut-off on Monday night. This deadline coincides with the drug-testing window opening on Friday Aguust 7th, with

Last year, coming off an incredible 2018-2019 performance, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was number four in the top 100 football players of the NFL, according to an annual list prepared by the NFL Network. Given that he led the Chiefs to its first Super Bowl victory in 50 years this year when the team beat the San Francisco 49ers, virtually everyone expected him to shoot up on the list four spots to take first place. However, NFL players, those who vote on the NFL Network’s rankings, had something else in mind and Mahomes will stay right where he is for another year. 

24-year-old Mahomes is ranked, again, as the fourth-best football player in the NFL, according to the final results of the poll. It certainly came as a surprise to many – and possibly to the Super Bowl MVP himself – and anyone who had taken the QB with a sportsbook just lost out big time. Not being listed in first place seems completely illogical, given all of Mahomes accomplishments in recent years. 

Those accomplishments paid off for the third-year Chiefs QB. In addition to all the awards and honors – NFL MVP (2018), NFL Offensive Player of the Year (2018), NFL passing touchdowns leader (2018,) Super MVP (2020) – he has received, his contract with his team was just renewed for ten years. To top it off, it was renewed two years before his current contract expires and is worth as much as $503 million, making him one of the most valuable players ever in any sport. 

Despite his long list of accomplishments, Mahomes wasn’t even the top-ranked QB on the list. He finished behind Russell Wilson, the QB for the Seattle Seahawks, at number two and Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson at number one. The number three spot went to Aaron Donald, a defensive tackle for the LA Rams. 

At the end of last week, the NFL and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) agreed to a number of rules directed toward dealing with the upcoming season and any possible fallout from the coronavirus. Among the options approved was the ability of a player to decide to sit out the season without any major ramifications, while still being eligible to receive a salary, albeit potentially only a fraction of the normal salary. So far, in just a matter of days, a number of players have gone for the deal, and more might be coming. 

According to the new rules, a player who opts out for valid medical reasons is entitled to a salary of $350,000 while still eligible for an accrued season. If a player opts out simply because he doesn’t feel comfortable playing under the COVID-19 cloud, he will only be entitled to a salary of $150,000. That salary, however, is considered an advance on their existing contract, which means it will be removed from future paychecks. 

So far, players haven’t been shy about stepping up and taking the package. Kansas City Chiefs right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif was one of the first, followed by Baltimore Ravens wide receiver De’Anthony Thomas, Seattle Seahawks guard Chance Warmack and Dallas Cowboys cornerback Maurice Canady, according to a report by Forbes. Next up, New England Patriots linemen Najee Toran and Marcus Cannon followed suit. The latest player to step away, and also another Pats player, is running back Danny Vitale. 

All of those players have decided to voluntarily step away, but another has been given a pass because he’s considered a “high-risk” player. Caleb Brantley, a defensive end for the Washington football team (formerly known as the Redskins), was approved to sit out and will be able to collect the $350,000 salary. 

Over the weekend, a number of football players took to Twitter to voice their concerns over what they viewed as a lack of action on the part of the NFL to implement policies to protect them from the coronavirus. Frustrations have been mounting because training camps are set to get underway as early as this week, and there has yet to be a solid COVID-19 policy put in place. The players wanted the public to know that, should they collectively decide to sit out of the regular season, blame could squarely be placed on the shoulders of league brass. Seemingly in response to the outcry, the NFL has made a little progress, but not necessarily in a way football fans would want to see. There’s a possibility that there will now be no preseason games as the league tries to figure out how to proceed.

First, the Hall of Fame game was canceled. Then, the number of preseason games for each team was cut from four to two. That was at the beginning of this month and, although the league has had ample time to react to the coronavirus pandemic, it appears to still be dragging its feet. This is despite the fact that it brought in a handful of doctors to establish protocols for players – suggestions the NFL has still been reluctant to implement. 

Players had suggested eliminating all preseason games, but the league didn’t want to accept the change. It countered with a one-game possibility, which has been rejected by the NFL Players Association (NFLPA). The union made it clear yesterday when it met with league personnel that there was no way preseason games could be held, and the NFL was forced to respond.

Per the NFL collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the league can mandate the number of preseason games and could have forced the issue with players. However, it would have been a losing battle – players would have simply gone on strike. As a result, and to save face, the NFL “proactively” made the decision to call off all preseason games. 

With the return of the National Football League, NFL players have been using the hashtag #WeWantToPlay over the weekend to explain why they are frustrated with some medical protocols not being in place. They don’t feel safe, and they’re letting the fans know. The blow-up is already huge but may yet see huge problems envelop the return of one of the biggest sportsbetting events of the year.

It’s clear that players are angry, and Watt’s Twitter status on Sunday night showed as much in an extremely frank way.

Once again in the interest of keeping everyone (players & fans) as informed as possible, here is an updated list of what we as players know and don’t know as the first group gets set to report to training camp tomorrow.#WeWantToPlay pic.twitter.com/xQcjs33zgM

— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) July 19, 2020https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

A clear pattern is starting to build with Washington’s football team: If you want any serious change with the organization, you need a massive backlash to the franchise’s behavior. First there was years of pressure to change the team’s name. Now, a focus on an alleged history of sexual misbehavior in the back office. And if neither of those are enough to get you upset, there’s a growing history of just not being good at football.

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

Sexual Harassment Allegations and Fallout

The bombshell scandal that revealed itself on Thursday revealed Dan Snyder’s football organization turned a blind eye to years of sexual harassment, alleged by 15 female employees, from top figures in the organization. While Snyder himself wasn’t implicated, that he somehow didn’t know any of this was happening is just as bad.