Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll says he'd be fine with delaying training camp amid coronavirus

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll on Friday told 710 ESPN Seattle that he’d be fine with NFL training camps being delayed amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, to make sure all concerns about playing football during this time have been adequately addressed.

The Seahawks are set to begin camp July 28.

“Whatever we need to do to get this right is what I hope we do,” Carroll told 710’s John Clayton. “If we’ve got to slow down a little bit to get started, that would be okay. There (are) a lot of unsettled issues right now between the league and the players.”

NFL training camps are scheduled to begin in less than three weeks, but many issues remain over protocol and safety. There’s disagreement over the preseason; the league wants two games, while the NFLPA is pushing for none. It’s also unclear how testing will operate, and how exactly players’ salaries will be impacted. Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reported earlier this week that the league proposed for 35% of players being held in escrow to help manage costs during the 2020 season. Seahawks safety Quandre Diggs was among the many players across the league to oppose that idea.

Seahawks defensive end Bruce Irvin was among others to inquire, “Is the NFL not going to give the players an option to play or not?”

Pelissero said that the NFL and NFLPA have a call scheduled for Monday to continue discussions.

Former Seahawk Richard Sherman, who’s on the NFLPA’s executive committee, tweeted Friday that “huge outstanding issues are still unresolved,” and that the players haven’t agreed to anything in the league’s proposal.

“... The start of the (regular) season is such a long ways away from us at this point,” Carroll said. “And we are all going through this together. It is all going to be relative, the competitive aspect is going to be equal as we go through it. But right now if we needed to take a step back and keep drawing information, it seems like we learn so much every couple days. There is so much information coming in. Whatever we need to do to do this right is what I hope we do.”
 
Carroll stressed the need for the league to be “smart” before proceeding with the NFL season.

“The whole idea is how can we protect our people?” Carroll said. “How can we protect our players and their families, our coaches and their families and all of the people who support us as we go through the process of unveiling a football season? There’s so much that goes into it. The thing that I am feeling right now is we would like all the information we can get. We want to be as smart as we can as we make these choices and decisions as we move forward.”

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Ben Arthur covers sports for SeattlePI. He can be reached by email at benjaminarthur@seattlepi.com. Follow him on twitter at @benyarthur.