The Rodgers-Love debate may be premature, because there might not even be a 2020 NFL season

Much of the discussion about the upcoming NFL season centers around the future of Aaron Rodgers with the Green Bay Packers, after the Packer management in their infinite wisdom picked Jordan Love of Utah State in the first round of the past NFL draft. There are those “experts” who are finding reasons to blame either Rodgers or Packer management for the team’s failure to go to a Super Bowl since 2010; Some blame the Packers for not giving Rodgers elite-level playmakers when they had the chance to acquire them, while others think that Rodgers is overrated and has been given more credit than he deserves. Statistically Rodgers has certainly regressed the past several years; this may be due to nagging injuries he can’t shake off. One thing for certain is that the combination of decreasing passing efficiency and lower interceptions means that Rodgers is more apt to throw the ball away than do what he used to do so well—throw receivers open, which is to put the ball in tight spaces where only his guy could catch it. 

There are those who say that the reason why the Packers drafted Love so high is that he is the “quarterback of the future.” I dunno; draft analysts noted that Love is another one of those “strong-armed” quarterback who has issues with decision-making, staring down receivers, and can miss badly on easy routes and doesn’t put the ball where a receiver can make YAC. Brett Hundley was supposed to be a quarterback of the future too, and we saw how that turned out. I remember some fans begging the hard-headed Mike McCarthy to give Joe Callahan a chance to play in 2017; hell, he might have turned out to be another Matt Flynn without a half-dead arm, and convince someone he could actually play. But then again the Packers also wanted DeShone Kizer before Cleveland “nabbed” him; Kizer didn’t play a down with the Raiders last season, and he is currently without a team.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves here. I mean, there is one important question to answer: Is there even going to be a 2020 NFL season with cases of COVID-19 on the rise again after some states opted to reopen too early. The start of training camp is tentatively slated for July 28, with players to be tested for the virus and the establishment of distancing protocols. The first of two preseason games will not played until the third week of August.  It is being determined if it is safe to allow stadiums to be filled 50 percent of capacity, with the first half-dozen or so rows closest to the field blocked-off, to be covered with tarps displaying logos from advertisers. Fans may also be forced to wear facemasks and  sign waivers preventing them from suing teams if they get sick. 

And that may still be overly optimistic. Saints coach Sean Payton, the Broncos’ Von Miller and the Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott are the top names who have contracted the virus (though they all claim to be feeling “good”) and training camp has not even started yet. Perhaps the key will be how “successful” the reopening of the MLB season and NBA playoffs at the end of July are. By “successful” we mean if they don’t lead to further outbreaks of the COVID-19, which may take several weeks to find out, and if the worst happens it could at the very least mean that regular season NFL games will be delayed or even cancelled, and at worst NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will be left with a decision that was previously “unthinkable”—canceling the entire season, for fear of negative public relations and player concerns.

Myself, I certainly want to see some football this year, and it did appear for a short while that the 2020 season would not be effected as has basketball, baseball and hockey, and the golf season has already reopened because players can easily “socially distance” on the field of play. But since the NFL season is still in the “future,” it appears that Goodell and the owners are hoping that time will take care of things, that somehow the “fire” will burn itself out by mid-August. But there is no indication that the COVID-19 is ready to pack its bags and go home, and time has a funny way of passing by so quickly that six weeks could seem like just yesterday, and nothing changed.