NFLPA president: Every answer leads to “three more questions”

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The NFL and NFLPA continue to talk about how to open camps safely, but one of the problems they’re having is that the targets keep moving.

Trying to plan around a virus that’s spreading at record levels in large swaths of the country makes things difficult, and that’s one of the problems the league and union are having at the moment.

“There are a lot of questions unanswered, and even when you do come up with an answer, it brings up three more questions,” NFLPA president JC Tretter said, via Mike Jones of USA Today. “It’s kind of constantly trying to plug the holes, and you’re just trying to stay afloat.”

That reality makes progress on a plan difficult, with the clock ticking toward the scheduled July 28 opening of training camps.

According to Jones’ report, the goal is to have agreement on important issues sometime late next week (specifically mentioning between July 8-10), to give players time to make travels arrangements to return to work.

“The NFLPA and NFL are in the same exact place, where we want whatever makes for the safest possible environments for all our constituents, whether they be players, coaches, trainers, medical staff — anyone in that team environment,” NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills said last week. “We’re going to work very hard together to educate everyone about the steps that we feel collectively are the most effective in reducing risks for everyone.”

Coming up with those steps is the current challenge, but the bigger one is recognizing any plans will have to be flexible, and subject to change throughout the season.