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00:00As the professional sports leagues look to plan how to return to play after the COVID-19
00:06pandemic, one must wonder, what is the NFL's plan?
00:09I'm Corey Pawson for SI.com.
00:11Joining me right now is SI columnist Andrew Brandt.
00:15Andrew, has the NFL, mainly because of the fact that they were offseason, do they have
00:20to have an advantage when it comes to planning how they return to play?
00:23Yeah, they're able, Corey, to really watch and learn.
00:27They can watch how the bubble concept works with the NBA and the NHL.
00:30They can watch baseball, assuming they start up again, and they can watch all these leagues
00:35in terms of how they handle the three T's, testing, treatment, and tracing, and how they're
00:41going to deal with any kind of infections going forward.
00:45In a relative sense, the NFL is much luckier than all these other leagues, simply because
00:49of the luxury of time.
00:50They have the time to watch best practices and figure out what's best for them.
00:56Andrew, I know you're not a doctor or a scientist, but I know you have spoken with some people.
01:00What are some of the health ramifications that COVID-19 can have on a professional athlete?
01:05Yeah, no, I was struck, and I wrote about this in this week's column in the MMQB.
01:11I was struck listening to the doctor for the NFL PA, Dr. Tom Meyer, talk about this idea
01:18that NFL players are armored against this because they're young and strong and healthy.
01:23He may not be exactly right.
01:25He talked about three risk factors.
01:27One is being African American, one is sleep apnea, and one is high BMI measurements that
01:32all could be problems for NFL players.
01:36I saw in the news, Corey, that Von Miller, who had the disease still, it was weeks later,
01:42still having trouble getting back to normal in terms of his workouts and windedness and
01:47lung capacity.
01:49That was concerning.
01:50There's a lot the NFL has to deal with here, assuming they're going to play.
01:55Andrew, we all know how it goes.
01:57You got the owners and you have scientists.
01:59They have to figure out a way to come together, but honestly, what do you think is going to
02:03be the end result, the final plan?
02:05More leaning heavy on what the owners need or more leaning heavy on what the scientists
02:08and the people in the medical profession say?
02:10Yeah, we know the line from Dr. Fauci, the virus makes the timeline.
02:15We don't make the timeline, but as we've seen, the NFL's business as usual all the way through
02:21Corey, I just want people to understand this.
02:25If the only priority or the highest priority of the NFL was the health and safety of the
02:30players, I think it's pretty clear, they wouldn't play.
02:34I think we just need to be honest.
02:36That is not the only priority here.
02:39This is a business, a $15 billion business that would suffer major, major catastrophic
02:45loss if they shut down.
02:49The NFL is going to mitigate the risk the best they can with the science, but they're
02:53going to play.
02:55We have to understand how important my specialty is, the business of football, in all of this.
03:01We're adults.
03:02I think the NFL and everyone should be honest about this.
03:05This is not 100% about health.
03:08This is business.
03:09This business is going to mitigate the best it can on the health side, but it's going
03:14to play.
03:15Alright, thank you very much for your candor, Andrew.
03:18For the latest news from the NFL, make sure you keep it locked right here to SI.com.