Fans In The Stands

I'm thankful and hopeful that there will be a complete NFL season this fall and winter. The main reason I think that there will be a season is because of the manner in which the 32 teams have handled coming together for training camp. I figured that the players, coaches, and staff would do a much better job than the leaders and people of this country at dealing with a global pandemic. It'd be impossible to do worse. I'm relieved that the players, coaches, and staff have done even better than my optimistic expectations. They can't relax. It only gets more challenging when the teams start jetting around the country for games. The games. The games mean fans. Every team wants their fans in the stands. This is where the teams are making differing decisions. In many cases, it's a city or state that's making the decision for the team that resides in that city or state. That could be tragic seeing as some states have been incredibly stupid with their COVID decisions. Mind-numbingly stupid. So, we have teams making various decisions about fans in the stands. Here's what I've collected, so far.

No Fans for the start of the season or through September:
Minnesota Vikings
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills
Chicago Bears
Denver Broncos
Houston Texans
New England Patriots
New Orleans Saints
Pittsburgh Steelers
San Francisco 49ers
Tennessee Titans

No Fans through early October:
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Seattle Seahawks

No Fans indefinitely:
Cincinnati Bengals
Los Angeles Chargers
Los Angeles Rams
New York Giants
New York Jets
Philadelphia Eagles

No Fans all season:
Las Vegas Raiders
Washington

Seeking Approval for reduced capacity seating:
Cleveland Browns

Limited Attendance for all games
Dallas Cowboys

Attendance Limited to about 25% of capacity
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
Kansas City Chiefs

Other Limited Attendance (max 13,000 fans):
Miami Dolphins

No Attendance Plans:
Carolina Panthers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers

***

It's just over 239 miles between Dallas and Houston and the Cowboys and Texans are going with very different attendance plans. Texas governor Greg Abbot has bucked common sense and medical advice to make 50% of stadium capacity an acceptable gathering for games. The Texans are concerned for the safety of their fans and their community and are going with no fans to start the season. The Cowboys are going with money over the health of their fans and community and planning to put more fans in the stands than any team in the league. No surprise there.

The Chiefs opened up Arrowhead Stadium to a limited number of fans for a recent practice. Many of the fans were without masks and not social distancing. I see this as evidence that fans can't be trusted
to do what needs to be done. At least not in Kansas City.

NFL players, coaches, and staff have to be smart this season to have a season. So do the fans. Right now, I have little faith in the latter. I hope that they prove me wrong.