It's long been rumored, but on Wednesday things became a bit more official: the NFL will reportedly cut the 2020 preseason in half:
2020 preseason has been cut in half, per source. Post coming at PFT.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) July 1, 2020
Week One and Week Four will be the preseason weeks that are scrapped, per source.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) July 1, 2020
Updated NFL preseason schedule:
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) July 1, 2020
July 28: Nearly all NFL teams report to training camp
23 day acclimation period begins
Preseason Week 1: August 20th-24th
Preseason Week 2: August 27th-31st
September 10th: Chiefs vs. Texans. The games begin 🏈.
Shortening the preseason has been a topic of conversation around the league for a while now, but a new urgency has been attached to the idea because of the ongoing the COVID-19 pandemic. As states continue struggling with rising infection rates, beginning the season on time looks more and more unlikely. The NFL has already altered their season schedule to accomodate for a delayed start or early-season interruption.
It's especially bad news for the Bears, who were planning on using all four preseason games to determine whether Nick Foles or Mitch Trubisky would win the starting quarterback job. Without half their preseason games (they'd lose games against Cleveland and Tennessee), things obviously become much trickier.
NFL will reportedly cut 2020 preseason in half; will drop Weeks 1 and 4 originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago