Packers Monitoring Coronavirus But Conducting ‘Business as Usual’

GREEN BAY, Wis. – While the COVID-19 pandemic shook the sporting world on Wednesday, it’s mostly offseason business as usual for the Green Bay Packers.

While most of the players will be out of town until the start of the offseason program on April 20, players who live in the Green Bay area have continued to work out at the team facility at Lambeau Field. Team staffers are working at the stadium, as usual, rather than telecommuting.

According to Yahoo! Sports, the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers have taken their assistant coaches off the annual pro-day circuit. The Packers typically keep their assistant coaches at home. Their scouts, however, are on the road like always; they were represented at Wednesday’s pro days at Wisconsin and Oklahoma, for instance.

Packers President Mark Murphy was not available for comment. In a statement, the team said: "The Green Bay Packers, along with Brown County, the city of Green Bay, the state of Wisconsin and those across the country, are closely watching and navigating the current situation with the novel coronavirus. We currently are operating business as usual, but will pay close attention and follow guidance and direction from the CDC and government officials, in addition to industry associations and stakeholders, on necessary measures.”

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Troy Vincent, the NFL’s the executive vice president of football operations, told Sports Illustrated that the league’s effort includes communication with the Center for Disease Control as well as ongoing discussions with individual teams and monitoring.

“As we get information from the CDC, we’re keeping all employees abreast of what we hear," Vincent said. “Our chief medical officer is following this. We’re just keeping staff members informed, clubs informed. As they get information, we get information, we share. Just making we’re sure following.”

The NFL owners meetings, set for March 29 through April 1 in Palm Beach, Fla., and the NFL Draft, scheduled for April 23 through April 25 in Las Vegas, are set to take place as scheduled.

Wednesday was a chaotic day, as major sports came to grips about the realities of the pandemic. The NBA decided to indefinitely suspend play and the NCAA elected to hold its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments without fans in the arenas. Those decisions, as well as legendary actor Tom Hanks tweeting that he had tested positive, seemed to amplify the reality to the nation as a whole.

Shortly before the start of a matchup between the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder, the game was postponed and ultimately canceled. Jazz star Rudy Gobert, who had been ill, had tested positive for coronavirus. Not long thereafter, the NBA puts the brakes on its season.

“The NBA will use this hiatus to determine the next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic,” the league said in a statement. 

For now, the NHL season will continue, though the league said it would provide an update on Thursday. Earlier in the day, the NCAA announced the dramatic step of playing the entire men's and women's basketball tournaments without fans in the stands.

"I have made the decision to conduct our upcoming championship events, including the Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, with only essential staff and limited family in attendance" NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a statement. He continued:

"While I understand how disappointing this is for all fans of our sports, my decision is based on the current understanding of how COVID-19 is progressing in the United States. The decision is in the best interest of public health, including that of coaches, administrators, fans and, most importantly, our student-athletes. We recognize the opportunity to compete in an NCAA national championship is an experience of a lifetime for the students and their families. Today, we will move forward and conduct championships consistent with the current information and will continue to monitor and make adjustments as needed."

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Earlier in the day, the NBA’s Golden State Warriors announced that Thursday’s game against the New Jersey Nets would be played without fans at the Chase Center “due to escalating concerns about the spread of COVID-19 and in consultation with the City and County of San Francisco.” All events at the arena through March 21 will be cancelled or postponed. 

For the NBA, NHL and NCAA, the governing bodies are trying to juggle the safety of players and fans while running a business. For a glimpse at those business decisions, according to ESPN, the Warriors are the league’s highest-grossing team with each home game worth somewhere between $3.6 million and $3.8 million. 

“We would recommend that there not be large crowds,” Dr. Anthony Fauci of the U.S. National Institutes of Health testified on Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning, when asked specifically about sporting events like the NCAA tournament and the NBA. “If that means not having any people in the audience ... so be it. But as a public health official, anything that has large crowds is something that would give a risk to spread.”

The Big Ten men's basketball tournament opened as usual on Wednesday in Indianapolis. On Thursday, though, tournament games will be limited to student-athletes, coaches, event staff, essential team and conference staff, TV network partners, credentialed media, and immediate family members of the participating teams. The same is true for the ACC and Big 12 tournaments, with fans in attendance on Wednesday but not Thursday and beyond. The Big East, SEC and Pac-12 tournaments are scheduled to proceed as normal.

The Ivy League cancelled its conference basketball tournaments altogether. Ivy League players posted a petition on Change.org hoping for that decision to be reversed, citing the “hypocrisy” of Ivy League presidents for allowing other conference sports to continue.

“We feel the decision to cancel the tournament was made without enough serious consideration for the student-athletes and the investments that have been made up to this point in our season,” the players wrote. “This is the pinnacle of what we have worked for since August. … We just want to play. As much as we want our family and friends to be in attendance, we don’t need spectators to play the sport we love.”

The WIAA, the governing body for Wisconsin’s high school sports, announced that its girls basketball tournament will go on as scheduled this week at the Resch Center, which is located across the street from Lambeau Field.