Wednesday open thread: Will the 2020 NFL season happen?

Detroit Lions twitter has been as rowdy as ever, speculating everything from who the Lions will take third overall to who the Lions’ starting punter will be come August (or maybe that’s just me, who knows). I’ll be the first to say it—we need sports, but we especially need NFL football. If the coronavirus is still rampant come summer, that could be in jeopardy.

Question of the day: Will the 2020 NFL season happen?

My answer: I’d highly doubt it.

Most projections show that this will take several more months to ride out, so unless a magical vaccine shows up and gets deployed before August, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

This of course begs numerous other questions:

• Would the league cancel it outright, or would they prolong postponing it for as long as possible?
• If things got resolved in a manner that permitted a partial season, would the NFL do it? (The answer is yes, because that puts money in their pockets.)
• Would the NFL consider fan-less games to prevent large crowds of people together?
• Will EA still release Madden NFL 21?
• What are the long-term impacts of this on the league; most importantly on timelines of contracts such as player deals, the new CBA, and more.

What do you think? Will the 2020 NFL season happen? If it doesn’t what will be the biggest ramifications? Let us know below.

P.S. Get on the “Lions went undefeated in 2020” joke train while it’s still boarding.