The Las Vegas Raiders are set to report to their practice facility in Henderson this week, although there still are a ton of issues that need to be sorted out.
The league has had months to put together health and safety protocols due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, although to this point, nothing is set in stone yet.
While the league has made it clear that something will be in place, it is understandable why the players are upset that is not the case yet when they are supposed to report in a few days. Football is a contact sport with a lot of players involved, so if the protocols aren’t strict then it is possible a handful of players, or even a full team and staff members, contract coronavirus at some point during the season.
Because of that, a number of NFL players took to social media to express concerns, and that included Raiders players like Derek Carr, Trent Brown, Damarious Randall and Erik Harris, via Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Multiple @Raiders among the several @NFL players tweeting about safety concerns ahead of training camp kicking off Tuesday. #vegas #raiders #nfltwitter pic.twitter.com/h61j9I4jQO
— Mick Akers (@mickakers) July 19, 2020
Rodney Hudson is the Raiders’ rep in the NFL Players Association, so he has been involved in all of the negotiations, and even he is unhappy, via Vic Tafur of The Athletic:
#Raiders player rep Rodney Hudson’s statement on league’s handling of pandemic guidelines. pic.twitter.com/ssYbqjtMOH
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) July 19, 2020
Houston Texans defensive end JJ Watt did a nice job of laying out the exact concerns the players have at this time:
Once again in the interest of keeping everyone (players & fans) as informed as possible, here is an updated list of what we as players know and don’t know as the first group gets set to report to training camp tomorrow.#WeWantToPlay pic.twitter.com/xQcjs33zgM
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) July 19, 2020
Raiders rookie are expected to report for training camp on Wednesday, not leaving much time for all of the health and safety protocols to be put in place.
Hopefully the league and the NFLPA can work together to come up with a solution that keeps everyone as safe as possible, or else the 2020 season could be in jeopardy.
