It would be almost impossible for the NFL to go into one, or even two, "bubbles" the way the NBA and NHL have over the last couple months, as one NFL team's staffing needs are equivalent to, at minimum, three NHL teams and five NBA teams.
However, if the NFL wants to get serious about preventing COVID-19 in the most physical of contact sports, could four "regional" bubbles of eight teams each work?
Given that fans are banned from some stadiums indefinitely (and even tailgating is banned for now in some locales), the answer is yes, if done right, perhaps as a hybrid between the NHL and MLB.
Doing, say, four bubbles would require some schedule manipulation, some logistical magic, and a little television concession, but here's how it could work.
LOGISTICSEach conference has four divisions, so if you put the two Easts, Norths, Souths, and Wests together, you can form these bubbles. You need an area large enough to house four stadiums, plus practice space for four other teams. Ideally, containing them to as small a geographic area in as few states as possible (one if feasible) is the best way to maintain COVID protocols are consistent at baseline, and it's also ideal to have at least one indoor stadium in locales where weather is an issue.
The best way to solve that? Four states say hello.
In southern California, Los Angeles has three football-quality stadiums alone in the Rose Bowl, the LA Coliseum, and the brand-new SoFi Stadium, and what is now SDCCU Stadium in San Diego is still in commission for this year. Teams can also share space with the two LA MLS teams – the Chargers did last season after leaving San Diego – if attendance isn't a concern, and at some point could also have access to Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, or Petco Park.
A similar scenario works in Florida – a COVID hot-spot, yes, but a state with 10 football-quality stadiums and two soccer facilities, plus potential access to several baseball stadiums currently unoccupied by Florida State League teams (as well as Tropicana Field and Marlins Park) – and Texas, which, with AT&T Stadium, NRG Stadium, the Cotton Bowl, AlamoDome) can run four games without displacing anyone and without more than a five-hour drive (and has literally dozens of collegiate facilities as well).
A northern bubble isn't as one-state simple – perhaps Pennsylvania, using Philly's Franklin Field, Penn State's Beaver Stadium, the MLS stadium in suburban Philly, and/or Hersheypark Stadium? Even spreading over two states, you could do Pennsylvania and Maryland (and DC), which gives you NFL-capable stadiums in Philly, Baltimore, DC proper, and Landover, Maryland.
SCHEDULINGThe NFL wants an 18-game schedule eventually? Well, how about making 14 work this year, with each team playing their seven regional counterparts twice each. Just like baseball, the top two teams from each division make an extended playoffs, with each "wild card round" game in the respective bubbles (two Friday night, three Saturday, three Sunday) and then the final eight teams moving to Florida, which is the home of Super Bowl XLIV.
It's a modification on both schedule and playoff structure, but for one season, it gets the job done.
TV OR NOT TVEven if each team gets a bye week by division (running Weeks 4-11 or so as usual), the season is only going to last 15 weeks – which means two Monday Night Football games and a handful of other national games fall by the wayside. The best way to start this, honestly, is to do to FOX's Thursday night deal what NFL teams are doing to contracts of COVID opt-outs: toll it so it runs an extra year. As for the other games, well, four extra playoff games in the first round should be enough to cover the two missing Monday Night Football games for ESPN and NBC's two lost Sunday nighters. The NFL can still run one Thursday game on opening night, but everything else is Sunday or Monday.
Time zones play nicely here, too, as the league has, by default, 12 games in the East/Central and four in the west each week, so it can move games to the "late" window as needed. It might wreak havoc on scheduling a few times a year (especially the two weeks the West teams are on byes), but with a 15-week season, the final game would be right before Christmas, teams could begin the playoffs Christmas weekend, take the New Year's week off to re-acclimate to the new bubble (and allow college bowl games if that season begins), then run two weeks of playoffs before a Jan. 31 Super Bowl, one week earlier than currently scheduled.
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