Many have speculated that television audiences will watch NFL players kneel in protest this season while the anthem singers sing and the colors are presented by military or police honor guards.
Well, it now appears as though television viewers will only see protesters.
According to a report Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, part of the NFL’s coronavirus mitigation strategy will be to not have on-field anthem singers this year, and the use military/police honor guards could be curtailed as well.
McCarthy writes: The objective is to strictly limit the number of people on the sidelines who can potentially infect players and coaches with COVID-19, said sources. By the same token, the league will also crack down on the number of credentialed reporters and photographers with access to the playing field. Given the pandemic, the number of medical personnel on the sidelines will remain the same.
The ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ will still be played before each NFL game, said sources. But the anthem will not be performed live, such as the annual Super Bowl anthem performance most recently sung by Demi Lovato before Super Bowl LIV in February.
Instead, the league’s 32 teams may ask performers to sing the anthem off-site, then pipe it live inside their stadium, or have singers pre-record the anthem elsewhere, then play their rendition before kickoff.
“This year will be different due to COVID concerns. They want to limit the number of people around the players on the field,” a source to Front Office Sports said. – READ MORE
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