#NFL could be in ‘trouble’ without coronavirus bubble: Raiders’ Mark Davis

At least one NFL owner is wondering whether the league should follow the NBA’s lead and operate under a bubble for the 2020 season.

“You can keep players from the fans, but you can’t keep players from the players,” Raiders owner Mark Davis said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “That could be our Achilles’ heel. Without some form of bubble, we may be asking for trouble.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, recently suggested the NFL may need to keep its players in a bubble before later saying it was “impossible to call” whether a return to play would end up happening.

The NFL has held its offseason programs virtually amid the coronavirus pandemic, but teams are expected to report to training camp at the end of July. The league also held its draft virtually in April.

The NBA has announced its plans for a quarantine “bubble” at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Fla., with players expected to resume the 2019-20 season in a locked-down hotel and venue without fans in attendance.

Five NBA players have publicly opted out of the restart, but to this point no NFL players have said they won’t be taking part in the 2020 regular season, which is slated to begin in early September.