In a photo provided by ESPN Images, the draft board is seen before the start of the NFL football draft, Thursday, April 23, 2020, in Bristol, Conn. (Allen Kee/ESPN Images via AP)
The NFL will release a 2020 schedule next week that includes a full 17 weeks of games and no changes due to the coronavirus pandemic, a league spokesman told ESPN.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league plans to announce a September 10 season opener, a 16-game campaign with one bye week for all 32 clubs and a playoff run culminating with Super Bowl 55 in Tampa on February 7, 2021.
“We plan to start on time,” McCarthy told ESPN.
NFL teams typically conduct training camps starting in July and pre-season contests in August ahead of a four-month season with playoff games in January and the championship spectacle in early February.
The Kansas City Chiefs won last season’s crown by beating San Francisco in the Super Bowl at Miami only weeks before sports began shutting down due to the deadly virus outbreak.
While some states have eased stay-at-home rules, others have not and social distancing rules that would preclude jam-packed stadiums for NFL games remain in place across the nation.