KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If the Kansas City Chiefs want to win another Super Bowl, they'll have to tackle a little more than the competition.
According to data released by the NFL Players Association, the road to victory leads through several COVID-19 hot spots.
NFLPA created an interactive map showing COVID-19 cases across the U.S. with a focus on markets where NFL teams are located.
The map can be changed to view overall hot spots, hot spots over the past two weeks or the area's daily average cases.
No matter how you toggle the map, every NFL market is at least somewhat in the red. Each of the teams are located in major metropolitan areas, which tend to have higher spread due to the concentration of housing and businesses, poverty levels and other factors.
Below is the Chiefs' away schedule for the 2020 season and where each team's stadium is located in order to take a better look at what this data means.
Preseason
- Week 2: Arizona Cardinals (Glendale, Arizona)
- Week 3: Dallas Cowboys (Arlington, Texas)
Regular season:
- Week 2: Los Angeles Chargers (Inglewood, California)
- Week 3: Baltimore Ravens (Baltimore, Maryland)
- Week 6: Buffalo Bills (Orchard Park, New York)
- Week 7: Denver Broncos (Denver, Colorado)
- Week 11: Las Vegas Raiders (Paradise, Nevada)
- Week 12: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Tampa, Florida)
- Week 14: Miami Dolphins (Miami Gardens, Florida)
- Week 15: New Orleans Saints (New Orleans, Louisiana)
While not every stadium is located inside the market's main city, teams do have to travel through and stay in the larger cities for the most part.
COVID-19 in the last two weeks
When it comes to increases in COVID-19 cases as over the last two weeks, Kansas City ranks 13th out of all NFL teams as of July 16.
On the road, seven of the 10 teams the Chiefs will face are located in markets within the top 10 highest two-week increases in COVID-19 cases.
Leading that list are the Miami Dolphins and Arizona Cardinals, followed by Tampa Bay, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Dallas.
While New York and Washington were the original states with the highest cases of COVID-19, they now rank near the bottom of this list as their outbreaks wane and other states see major increases in infections.
The two-week data set is the best indicator of where the danger of contracting COVID-19 lies, as that shows where cases are continuing to trend up and will likely continue trending up as the football season gets underway.
COVID-19 cases overall
If the data is set to rank markets in order of most overall cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population since the pandemic began, Kansas City ranks near the bottom at number 25.
However, four of the 10 teams Kansas City will face on the road are located in markets with the highest overall number of cases.
Those include New Orleans, Miami, Arizona and Los Angeles.
What does this mean?
While heading to an NFL market with a high concentration doesn't mean Chiefs players will be infected, it is a reason for the team to use extra caution.
As of July 10, 72 NFL players have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. This poses the greatest risk for their own teams as they begin workouts and near training camps.
No Chiefs players have tested positive for COVID-19 as of July 16.
The NFLPA recommends that in states where COVID-19 cases are high, no players practice together in order to prevent illness.
"Please be advised that it is our consensus medical opinion that in light of the increase in Covid-19 cases in certain states that no players should be engaged in practicing together in private workouts. Our goal is to have all players and your families as healthy as possible in the coming months," the association wrote on their website.
Social distancing is nearly impossible in the case of football. The number of players on the field and bench, the need to tackle other players and the communal handling of game balls all are risk factors of contracting COVID-19 during games or practice.
If infection rates grow on a team and some of those cases are unknown or asymptomatic, that increases the chance of teams exchanging infection during a game.
Wearing a mask to help lower the risk of spread would also make it extremely difficult for players to function on the field.
Risk factors for traveling to road games include transportation and lodging.
Even if players travel on private planes, that air is still circulated and could be a risk should someone on the team unknowingly be infected before or during a game and transfer it to teammates during travel. Buses provide a similar risk since it is impossible to social distance.
And while most hotels have put increased cleaning practices in place, there is still the risk of being in a public space and a risk that a cleaning step could be missed.
The NBA and MLS have attempted to combat these risks by placing players in a "bubble." All players are staying in Orlando at designated resorts with delivered meals and no need to travel to games.
As of now, the NFL has no plan to replicate the idea for football.
"Unless players are essentially in a bubble — insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day — it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall," Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN in June.
The risk he is citing is players living at home and being out and about in their communities could pick up the virus from family or friends. That risk factor is increased in the markets with a higher concentration of cases.
What is the NFL doing?
For starters, the NFL is testing out face shields to be placed in players' helmets to help protect them from COVID-19, rather than requiring masks on the field.
The shield is designed by Oakley.
Players who have been testing them are mainly concerned with visibility and the ability to breathe during games.
The league has also sent out a planner to every team for steps to fully reopen practice facilities as preseason starts to get underway.
The planner includes social distancing guidelines for locker rooms, cleaning guidelines and testing protocols.
Many procedures will likely evolve as teams enter training camp in the coming weeks, as that's when it will truly be evident whether it is safe for the NFL to take to the field.
