(Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
The NFL has placed guidelines for all coaches to have their mouths and noses covered by a mask during the 2020 season, which is being played in the middle of a pandemic.
The NFL came down hard on Denver's Vic Fangio, San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan and Seattle’s Pete Carroll for not wearing a mask this past Sunday, fining them $100,000. All three teams also were fined an additional $250,000. Jon Gruden of Las Vegas and Sean Payton of New Orleans, who's teams played on Monday night, was also fined $100,000 for not wearing a mask, along with their teams being fined $250,000.
The NFL is obviously taking it very seriously for coaches to wear masks during games. The NFL has got to this point with no major outbreaks of COVID-19 in locker rooms and they want it to remain that way. Players are not required to wear masks during games. The NFL's executive vice president of football operations, Troy Vincent, sent a memo to all 32 of the league’s teams a week ago calling on coaching employees to wear their masks at all times, CNN reported.
Vincent said in the memo failure to follow the public health guidelines would result in sanctions.
"We must remain vigilant and disciplined in following the processes and protocols put in place by not only the league, union and clubs, but also by state and local governments," Vincent said in the memo.
COVID-19 has affected a lot of people in several different ways and Mike Tomlin is just thankful to be in the position that he's in to be working and the NFL playing games.
"I'm just thankful to be working," Tomlin said when asked about following the NFL guidelines of wearing a mask during games. "A lot aren't able to in this pandemic. I don't take that for granted. I just want to show a good example and show I am thankful for working. I try to be as diligent as I can."