As baseball prepares to return for a 60-game regular season, the rules and regulations are becoming public.
Most significantly as it relates to the NFL, all players will have saliva tests for the coronavirus every other day. The NFL reportedly is planning for only 2-3 tests per week.
Other rules may have indirect relevance to the NFL. For example, hitters and pitchers will have their own equipment, with nothing shared. Also, players are prohibited from spitting, approaching umpires to argue, giving high fives, fist bumps, and/or hugs. Pitchers won’t be permitted to lick their fingers. Fighting is strictly prohibited.
There can be no sunflower seeds or smokeless tobacco.
For players who test positive, teams will have a COVID-19 injury list, where players will stay until testing and temperature monitoring shows that they are cleared to return.
Players will not sign a waiver; frankly, there’s no need to do so. The MLB Players Association has essentially done that for all players via the agreement that returns them to work during a pandemic.
The full list of coronavirus-inspired requirements appears here.