Mar 14, 2020 5 min read

It seems weird, but with the rest of the sports world shutting down in response to the spread of COVID-19, the NFL is going to start heating up this week.

The only major sports league not currently in season is going to have to carry the load for those who want some sports news. And the NFL will oblige.

Late last night, voting ended by NFLPA members on a potential new CBA. Teams now have until Monday at 11:59 a.m. to use a franchise or transition tag on pending free agents.

At noon Monday, the legal free agency tampering period will begin. Teams will be permitted to begin negotiations with pending free agents leading up to the start of the new league year – and the free agency that comes with it – at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

That all will happen, that is, if the league doesn’t decide to push that start date back, something that is being kicked around because some feel it will be “bad optics,” to have players agreeing to new contracts during a period of crisis.

But with nothing going on in terms of on-field action in any sport around the country, delaying the start of free agency would be the wrong move. The sports world came to a stop because we don’t want people gathering in crowds right now.

At this point, the start of free agency and the comings and goings involved could provide a nice distraction to everything else that is going on right now.

There has to be some kind of normalcy to life. We all need that.

• Make no mistake, Bud Dupree will be with the Steelers in 2020 one way or another. Right now, that way appears to be on the franchise tag.

There just isn’t going to be enough time to get a long-term deal in place with Dupree once the Steelers know what the salary cap rules for 2020 will be. The tag will give them time to look at that down the road.

• The free agent period figures to be an interesting one. In fact, don’t be surprised if there are not that many long-term deals signed.

Agents might look at this situation and tell their clients to opt for shorter deals because big money is coming in the near future when the league goes to a 17-game regular season. Potential future gambling money also could seriously increase the cap.

You’d hate to lock your client in on a four- or five-year deal only to see the cap rise $40 or $50 million in the next two seasons, which is what some expect to happen.

The salary cap in 2011, when the league signed its last CBA, was around $110 million. It’s currently slated to come in at just over $200 million this year. A new CBA deal would increase that a little more.

But the reason the owners have been pushing this deal so hard is that it’s also time to negotiate new TV deals. And those will be tied in to having a 17-game schedule. That will mean a lot more money in the pot for players.

• Expect the NHL to cancel the remainder of its regular season and have a mini-playoff for the teams currently fighting for the final couple of playoff spots in each conference.

Maybe teams 6-9 in the current standings would play a one- or three-game series to get into the postseason. In the Eastern Conference, that would be the Panthers, Maple Leafs, Blue Jackets and Islanders. Currently, all are within a point of each other.

That could be expanded, as well, to include the Rangers, who are two points out of sixth place, and the Panthers, who are three points out.

The teams in the Western Conference are similarly bunched.

The NHL is taking the biggest hit of all the canceled sports by not playing right now. The league’s TV deal isn’t great, so the NHL needs bodies in seats to pay the bills.

A mini-playoff before the regular playoff would make that happen.

• The cancelation of spring sports at the collegiate level leads to the question of what will the PIAA do with its current basketball playoffs? What about spring sports as a whole?

They’re already on hiatus and games won’t be played for a couple of weeks at the earliest. Given the current climate, they might not be played at all.

The NCAA is considering giving college seniors whose sports are canceled an extra year of eligibility.

That’s not an option for high school kids.

• Had this all come to a head a week earlier – and perhaps it should have – the PIAA wrestling tournament would have been a disaster.

You want to talk about a sport in which the combatants are in close contact? Look no further than wrestling.

Dale Lolley covers the Steelers for DKPittsburghSports.com and writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.