With training camps scheduled to begin next month, the NFL is mandating that each team develop an Infectious Disease Emergency Response (IDER) plan that sets forth the team’s protocols for containing an outbreak of COVID-19.
It will be mandated that teams divide their organizations into “tiers” that define where personnel can go and what they can do. The tiers are designed to limit access to restricted areas such as the practice and stadium fields, sidelines, locker room and training rooms to essential personnel only. Teams must assign tiers to all their employees, who wear a tiered photographed credential to spell out their access.
NFL teams have spent recent days trying to figure out who to place in what tier, according to league sources. NFL teams must designate their Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 employees and turn the plans into the league office seven days before the first mandatory reporting date for players for the 2020 NFL season. No one quite knows when that reporting date will be, but 26 teams are scheduled to begin training camp July 28.
There already have been heated discussions within teams as to who ends up in what tier, sources told Schefter, as the teams’ personnel try to cement their positions in the protocol.
Each team’s IDER will be subject to review and approval by the NFL, NFLPA and the Infection Control for Sports, formerly known as the Duke Infection control Outreach Network.