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Events of recent days make it more and more clear that the best way (perhaps the only way) to get all 256 regular-season and 13 postseason games played this year will be to put all teams in hotels, immediately.
Per multiple sources, the NFL gladly would do that. The question is whether the NFL Players Association would agree to it.
As one source explained it to PFT, the NFLPA balked during July negotiations at a Thursday-to-Sunday team-by-team bubble. The union likely would balk at a continuous bubble for the balance of the season.
The players may feel differently. Faced with game checks that will be lost for good if games are cancelled, staying in a hotel for the next three months seems to be an acceptable sacrifice. The NBA is doing it. The NHL has done it. If the NFL wants to have a full and complete season, the NFL needs to do it, too.
As another source noted earlier today, putting all players, coaches, and essential personnel in a hotel for the rest of the season should re-open the window on opting out, with some sort of financial benefit if they choose not to embrace staying in a hotel for the rest of the year. But even if another cluster of players decides to tap out as 32 bubbles form, that’s better than eventually having to cancel games or entire weeks or, as a worst-case scenario, to end the season prematurely.
