Going into the 2020 season, the NFL knew that trying to play out its entire schedule during a pandemic wouldn’t be easy and the league was definitely right. Through the first six weeks of the season, the NFL has already had to reschedule more than a dozen games. Although the league has had to reshuffle the schedule, one thing the NFL hasn’t had to do yet is reschedule its biggest game, the Super Bowl. However, not only could that end up happening this year, but the game could be pushed back all the way to March if games keep getting postponed.
Packers president Mark Murphy revealed that information during a virtual pep rally that the team held before playing the Buccaneers on Sunday. During the interview, Murphy was asked what might happen if the postponements start to impact the postseason schedule.
“We could move the Super Bowl back as far as four weeks,” Murphy said, via Aaron Nagler. “Obviously, we’d prefer not to do that, but you do have that flexibility if we run into a number of outbreaks with different teams or if we have to kind of move the schedule back.”
There were multiple reports before the season suggesting that the NFL would be willing to move the Super Bowl back a few weeks, but Murphy is the first front office member to confirm that on the record. Murphy also added a bonus nugget and that’s the Super Bowl could be played in March.
As Murphy noted, the league could push the game back four weeks, which means that Super Bowl LV, which is currently scheduled for Feb. 7 in Tampa, Florida, could conceivably be held on Feb. 14, Feb. 21, Feb. 28 or March 7. For the game to be played in March, it would obviously have to be a worst-case scenario, but after what the league’s been through so far this season, it’s definitely not something that can be ruled out. The NFL will probably also want to avoid a Valentine’s Day Super Bowl … for obvious reasons.
When it comes to scheduling, the problem for the NFL right now is that a total of 10 teams have already had a bye this year and if any of those teams are forced to postpone a future game, the league will likely have to add a Week 18 to make it work. That being said, Murphy did point out that the NFL will be doing its best to avoid having to play a Week 18.
“We’d prefer not to, we’d like to play as much as possible [with] the schedule as it sits now,” Murphy said.
On the other hand, if an 18th week has to happen, the league is ready.
“We decided to cancel the Pro Bowl, that was a fairly easy decision,” Murphy said. “That’s held the week before the Super Bowl, so it would be very easy to move everything back and create an 18th week.
As things currently stand, the game will be kicking off on Feb. 7 from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.