All 32 NFL teams have been told by Commissioner Roger Goodell to hold training camps at their home facilities this summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most NFL teams stay at their training complexes year-round including the Seahawks, who have held training camp at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton since 2009 (the VMAC opened in August of 2008 and the Seahawks held training camp that year at their old facility in Kirkland before moving).
So this edict does not impact teams that were already holding their camps at their home sites, though the league did say that teams could consider moving training camps offsite if they can prove that it is not “feasible” to hold it at their own facility. The league remains hopeful that will not be necessary.
The league it felt keeping teams at their facilities would limit the exposure to COVID-19.
Dallas, Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Buffalo are among the 10 teams that staged training camp elsewhere a year ago and now will be required to conduct camp at their own site.
The Cowboys and Steelers are scheduled for the Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 6 and will be the first two teams to report in late July. Dallas usually trains in Oxnard, California, and Pittsburgh in nearby Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
The league has canceled all in-person workouts at team facilities, which only in the past two weeks have begun opening on a limited basis. No coaches nor players other than those undergoing medical treatment and rehabilitation have been allowed in those facilities.
Soon, the NFL is hopeful of having club complexes fully open, but under strict medical guidelines including social distancing protocols.
One team in something of a limbo: the Raiders. Their move to Las Vegas has been complicated by the pandemic, of course. They had been working out of their Oakland-area complex in Alameda, and had been planning to hold training camp as usual in Napa, about one hour north of the Bay Area. But they could decide to move it to their new facility in Henderson, Nevada.