Are You Ready For Some NFL Football…In Bismarck?

Are You Ready For Some NFL Football...In Bismarck?

There was a rumor going around that Bismarck was possibly going to get an NFL franchise due to the Covid 19 Pandemic and it was true.  "Was" being the key word.  With all of the focus being on keeping their players healthy and trying to facilitate an on time regular season start, NFL teams were looking at "safe" locations, away from population centers and hot spots to hold their training camps.

Believe it or not, Bismarck was one of those "safe" places.  A couple of very inventive and enterprising people that I know had actually made a great deal of progress in securing Bismarck as a preseason training site.  Unfortunately that came to an end Tuesday when the NFL announced that all 32 of the league's teams would be holding this season's training camps at their team facilities only.

In a memo from league Commissioner Roger Goodell, "The only exception for training camp location is if "a club can demonstrate, to the satisfaction of a joint NFL-NFLPA medical task force, that it would not be feasible to conduct at their club facility."

So the question is, would either one of the two teams that were interested in holding their training camps in Bismarck be willing to demonstrate to the league that Bismarck is the safest place to be for their players and staffs?  I'd like to think that we are, but it would be highly unlikely.

Typically, some teams hold their preseason training camps away from their facilities (like the Minnesota Vikings used to hold theirs at Mankato State University).  The memo eliminated the possibility of teams such as the Pittsburgh Steelers (St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania), Dallas Cowboys (Oxnard, California), Indianapolis Colts (Westfield, Indiana), and others from traveling to remote sites to hold their training camps.

In case you're wondering, Bismarck probably won't be getting the Dallas Cowboy's or Carson Wentz's Philadelphia Eagles for training camp this year.  So, Are You Ready For Some NFL Football...In Bismarck?  Yes, but we'll have to wait for the next pandemic.