NFL order Chiefs, rest of teams to close facilities by Wednesday

The Kansas City Chiefs are being forced to close their club facilities to anyone and everyone—execs, staff, coaches, and players—by Wednesday evening.

If anyone needs to get anything or conduct any business out of Arrowhead Stadium, or any other facility owned and operated by the Kansas City Chiefs, the National Football League has given them until Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m. That’s the latest directive from commissioner Roger Goodell and the league’s offices.

The NFL has been fortunate among America’s major sports in its ability to conduct business as somewhat usual in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. While other sports have had to shut down actual game play—from the opening day of the Major League Baseball season to March Madness for college basketball to the end of the NBA regular season—the NFL has been able to continue its offseason calendar to the delight of fans looking for a distraction from the news.

That’s not to say the league hasn’t had to adjust. Plans for the upcoming NFL Draft are still on shaky ground, as the league says it wants to move forward as scheduled “at this time” in late April. However, NFL general managers reportedly want to move it back in a united front. Even pre-draft activities have been completely halted with numerous pro days, scouting visits, personal interviews and more being shut down due to orders to halt the spread of the virus.

Free agency will continue as expected, but it will be interesting to see how much more player movement we’ll see when teams aren’t able to bring in a player for a physical, etc.

For now, the only people allowed in and out of Arrowhead and other such facilities around the league are on-site security, IT or technology personnel, and athletic trainers or doctors working with injured players. The order is temporarily set to run through April 8.