Report: NFL, NFLPA concerned with certain teams opening camps in COVID-19 hotspots

As the NFL and NFLPA continue discussions on how to move forward during this pandemic, there is yet another hurdle that is reportedly being researched.

On Wednesday, the NFL Players Association general counsel Tom DePaso raised concerns about certain teams in hotspots opening camps, per NJ Advance Media (NJ.com). States that were referenced during a conference call were California, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, and of course, Florida.

Those concerns were not taken lightly by the league and are reportedly meeting with medical experts about starting training camps in those locations and how safe it would be, according to the report.

Those states currently hold 12 of the 32 teams across the league, including the Buccaneers.

As of now, nothing official has been decided on and teams are scheduled to open camps July 28. But both sides appear to be on the same page when it comes to camps opening up in those states.

“We see that we have new hotspots around the country. We all see it,” DePaso said, NJ Advance Media learned. “These are all places where our players will be asked to return to start training camp and to that end we obviously are very concerned.”

Owners are scheduled to meet this Friday to discuss the scheduled start of training camps across the league.