May 30, 2020 4 min read

We could see some type of minicamp for every team in the NFL by mid-June.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sent all 32 teams a memo Thursday letting them know coaching staffs can return to team facilities Monday, the first step toward getting players back on the practice field.

Players will still be prohibited from team facilities, which are still limited to no more than 75 employees at a time, but we’re getting closer.

And you’d better believe the NFL season will go on as planned, with or without fans in the stands.

Too many owners are saying it’s going to happen for that not to be the case.

Allowing the coaches to return – assuming the areas in which they coach permits it – will put the league on that path.

Don’t think for a minute the respective governors of New York, New Jersey, California and lastly, Pennsylvania, giving the OK for that to happen didn’t come without some pressure from the owners in the major sporting leagues. After all, running for public office costs money. And the owners of sports franchises have some of the deepest pockets.

The fact owners have had enough of the lockdown and want to get back to business didn’t fall on deaf ears, even ears that hadn’t heard the pleas from small business owners across the country the past two months.

One of the biggest concerns will be the conditioning of players, especially in baseball, which generally requires the least amount of conditioning from its athletes.

In a sport in which the likes of which C.C. Sabathia and Rick Reuschel (Google him young people) could effectively pitch well into a second decade, conditioning in baseball has long been a laughing matter. Heck, Babe Ruth, one of the most famous players of all-time, was hardly an Adonis.

But Major League Baseball appears intent on starting a season at or around July 4. And considering the league and players still haven’t come to an agreement on compensation, that’s not going to allow for much training.

Pitchers are currently throwing and working on conditioning their arms. But you can only throw so many bullpen sessions. At some point, you’ve got to open things up against live batters. And for more than just a couple of times before games start.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t be surprising to see teams tax their bullpens early in the season or risk the health of starters.

• Some have suggested any shortened season should have an asterisk put on them.

That’s silly.

After all, the major sports leagues continued to play throughout World War II despite many players being oversees fighting for their country.

The play in the leagues was certainly watered down. Yet the winners from those seasons are still considered champions. Without an asterisk.

Steelers receiver Diontae Johnson revealed last week that he played most of his rookie season with a groin injury that required sports hernia surgery to repair.

Despite that, Johnson led all rookies with 59 pass receptions and led the NFL in punt return average at 12.4 yards per return, earning All-Pro status.

But his injury does bring up a point that could be something good to come out of the COVID-19 shutdown.

Because teams were not permitted to have draft prospects do private visits this year, those meetings were done virtually instead of the prospect making a physical visit, as had been done in the past.

For Johnson, that meant leaving the NFL Scouting Combine in February and then constantly hopping on planes.

“I would say the biggest part was being able to work out, doing all that traveling and stuff, visiting teams,” Johnson said this week when asked what things will help this year’s draft class. “When you get to the team, I was out of shape because I didn’t get to work out like I wanted to. Being in shape, that’s what they harped on me about, coming in ready to run. It was kind of hard. I had to get my legs back up under me.”

Johnson dealt with leg issues last offseason because of that lack of time to work out. Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert is on record as saying the face-to-face prospect meetings might no longer be necessary.

• It will be June 1 Monday and the Pirates will still be tied for first place.

Sorry, couldn’t resist.