The NFL plans to release its full regular-season schedule later this week, and Peter King of NBC Sports warns fans not to get too married to the dates and times, or even the locations.
The league is still hopeful and planning for a September 10 start to the season. Who knows where we, as a country, will be at that point, though. Everyone is still feeling the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and no one knows if at least some of that will carry into September.
One Santa Clara country official, executive officer Dr. Jeffrey Smith, has already stated that he doesn't anticipate sports venues in the area, like Levi's Stadium, filling up with fans until November, possibly as late as Thanksgiving, at the earliest.
"This is not something that's going to be easy to do," Smith said.
Said 49ers president Al Guido last month: "Our organization, we're going to continue to collaborate with government, state, and local health organizations, and also the league office, to see when we can return."
If Levi's Stadium can't host NFL games, what does that mean for the 49ers? King wonders the same thing, especially if other teams have more lenient restrictions.
Writes King: "Could the 49ers at some point have to play games somewhere else? Could the 49ers play an imbalanced schedule, with more games on the road than at home? Think about how the sports landscape has changed in the last six weeks before you say, Absolutely not!"
It may seem crazy to think that the 49ers might have to head on the road for some scheduled home games, but these are crazy times. No one knows where we will be, come September.
There have been reports that the NFL will push divisional matchups between teams to the backend of the schedule, allowing for some flexibility in the first weeks, should those games be unable to proceed.
Adds King: "You have to consider that by August—when preparation for a full season would have to begin—that all rules for human contact and the gathering of even small crowds could still be different in some of the 50 states."