NFL team facilities began to reopen for non-player staff on Tuesday, though the league’s chief medical officer told reporters it remains unclear when players could return.
All 32 clubs closed in March amid the coronavirus outbreak that shredded the professional sports calendar and sent players, coaches and personnel into lockdown.
The NFL outlined protocols for reopening earlier this month that included social distancing precautions, with the Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, Atlanta Falcons and Indianapolis Colts among the teams that opened their doors on Tuesday, according to US media reports.
“We’ve really taken an approach that we want to do this opening in a very phased, progressive, civilised fashion,” Allen Stills, the league’s chief medical official, told reporters.
“I’ve sort of used the phrase that we want to walk, then jog, then run as we think about how to reopen our facilities.”
Under the league provisions, clubs can start by allowing 50% of non-player staff to return and coaches are not allowed.
Stills said it was unclear when and how players could return, however, as the league targets a September 10 start to its season while many parts of the country remain on lockdown.
“Obviously bringing players back in and doing football activity presents many challenges and a lot of medical issues to work through,” said Stills, who said that the NFL was “not putting dates on the calendar at this point” in regard to June mini-camps. Coordinating testing of players and personnel is also a concern, with Stills saying the league would ensure “that we’re in no way affecting the supply of tests” regionally or nationally.
Professional sports have slowly begun crawling back to life across North America, with golf and NASCAR putting on fanless events on Sunday, and Major League Baseball hoping to salvage its season. 


Set to lose $5.5bn
NFL teams stand to lose a combined $5.5bn (5bn euros) in stadium revenue if the 2020 campaign is played without any spectators, according to a Forbes magazine estimate.
The magazine, which annually values each NFL club, said the amount teams would lose with no spectators due to the coronavirus pandemic equals 38% of total NFL revenue from the 2018 season, the latest from which figures are available.
That includes lost revenue from ticket sales, parking, sponsors, food and drinks and souvenir sales.
The absence of spectators would hit some teams harder than others, but none more than the Dallas Cowboys, who would lose $621mn in stadium income — more than the total revenue of any other NFL franchise and a huge chunk of their $950mn total revenue.
New England Patriots would lose $315mn from total revenues of $600mn while the New York Giants ranked third at $262mn lost from $519mn in total revenue.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 24th of 31 teams on the list with $119mn in lost revenue from a $400mn total, would expect a major jump in ticket sales and associated income after signing six-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady.
And the two bottom teams on the list, the Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders, are set to move into new stadiums with vast boosts in ticket sales and associated income to be expected from the venue switches.
The Raiders figures would show $77mn in lost revenue from a league-low $357mn total, but those figures came in Oakland while the team is set to play in a brand new 65,000-seat, $1.8bn stadium in Las Vegas in 2020.
The Chargers, second-worst in the report with $93mn in lost revenue from a $375mn total, are set to move from a smaller venue into a new $5bn stadium with 70,000 seats for regular NFL games.
The Los Angeles Rams, set to drop $121mn off total revenue of $401mn, would also make the move into the new stadium.