The NFL is not pushing back the start of training camps ahead of the 2020 season as it continues its strategy of staying mostly on schedule with key offseason events.
The league informed teams last week that camps are set to begin as planned July 28. Rookies and and certain other players will be allowed to report prior to that date.
The @NFL advised teams that training camps are expected to begin as scheduled on July 28 with rookies and selected players permitted to report earlier. https://t.co/ZnSybQsTWD pic.twitter.com/B16LT1qMTX
— NFL Football Operations (@NFLFootballOps) June 29, 2020
According to a league release, the timetable was announced Thursday in a virtual meeting with team owners.
MORE: Steelers tradition ending with camp staying at home
The league told teams June 7 that they must develop plans to respond to a possible COVID-19 outbreak before players can enter team facilities for football activities, and attached protocols for the plan. Ravens coach John Harbaugh said the protocols were were "humanly impossible" to follow. The league was unmoved.
The NFL has mostly stayed the course since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The league year and free agency began in mid-March and the NFL Draft took place in late April, although it was done remotely after plans for a Las Vegas weekend event were scrapped. The 2020 schedule release was pushed back to early May from the traditional week before the draft amid coronavirus-related uncertainty.
The 2020 regular season remains on track to start Sept. 10 with the Super Bowl champion Chiefs hosting the Texans.
Not all of the NFL preseason will go on as planned, however. The league last week canceled the 2020 Hall of Fame Game and postponed the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony in Canton, Ohio, to 2021.
