The NBA will tip off the remainder of its 2019-20 season at Orlando's Disney World in less than two weeks. And while the league's "bubble" strategy -- confining all 22 of its participating teams to the same location -- was vital to resuming play during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban doesn't think the NFL can follow the same path.
The NBA, Cuban told CNBC on Monday, has the "advantage" over the NFL, which planned to open training camps this week and still intends to kick off its regular season in early September. While "we have one location" and can "keep everything under control," Cuban explained, it would be "very difficult" for the NFL to institute any kind of bubble atmosphere -- something he said he hasn't heard as a legitimate possibility for football this fall.
Cuban's remarks aren't necessarily groundbreaking; the NFL has proceeded as if its 32 teams will operate as usual, at least as far as traveling to and from stadiums goes, during the 2020 season. The NFL's chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Stills, said in June that a bubble would be impractical for football, posing that infected players would simply be individually isolated. But the idea of a stationary campus has been floated several times during the league's disrupted offseason. Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis, for example, once suggested the NFL would be "asking for trouble" if it didn't construct a bubble campus.
At this point, even if the NFL were to reconsider its stance, there likely wouldn't be enough time to negotiate, let alone finalize, bubble construction and protocol ahead of the scheduled 2020 season. The NFL and NFL Players Association are still in talks to define COVID-19 testing and safety standards for the season, as well as finalize the number of preseason games in August.
