The NY Giants got some terrific news on Wednesday morning, as the Governor of New Jersey announced that sports teams within the states can resume team activities and even practices.
Although this is welcomed news for the NY Giants, the team is still at the mercy of the NFL who has not given teams the green light to go full steam ahead. Still, getting clearance from the state was a huge hurdle that not many were confident would be resolved anytime soon.
Here’s the Governor’s tweet from this morning.
UPDATE: Professional sports teams in NJ may return to training and even competition – if their leagues choose to move in that direction. We have been in constant discussions with teams about necessary protocols to protect the health and safety of players, coaches, and personnel. pic.twitter.com/yMrCFtSyqY
— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) May 26, 2020
The NFL had begun to let team facilities open in small doses, allowing a small number of essential employees to begin transitioning back into the office. Left out of that group of employees was coaches, and there’s still no word on when the NFL will make that next concession.
Here’s what the NY Giants had to say in response to today’s news.
"“With today’s announcement by the governor, we are finalizing our plans to reopen,” the Giants said in a statement. “We will continue to have as many employees as possible working remotely. For employees who need to return to work at our facility, we expect to begin that process next week, and we will do so in a systematic and safe way that adheres to the sate’s guidelines and NFL protocols. “"
While I believe it’s still a longshot that we’ll see a traditional length training camp and preseason, today’s news is undoubtedly overwhelmingly positive as the state won’t get in the way of those things.
At this point, getting in any length of physical training camp would be a huge win for NFL teams as just a few weeks ago the season itself in general was very much up in the air.
For now, head coach Joe Judge and his staff will continue to run virtual meetings just about every day and reports have been encouraging about most of the players taking part — except for DeAndre Baker who ended up getting into trouble in his free time and is now banned from taking part.
Rookie mini-camps seem to still be out of the question, but with traditional training camps typically beginning in mid-July, the league and its teams have quite a bit of time to get on the same page and figure out the best way to go about getting back into the swing of things.
Throughout all of this, the NFL has been careful to concede anything in terms of admitting there would be a possibility the 2020 season would not take place, so it’s fair to assume the league will be looking to get teams going as fast as possible once the safety technicalities are ironed out.