It's the NFL's turn to play through a pandemic

A season unlike any of the previous 100 opens Thursday night in Kansas City when the NFL returns to live action in front of a wounded nation torn by racial strife and a worldwide pandemic that's killed about 190,000 Americans since the Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV just seven months ago.

"This has been, by all accounts, a very strange year," said Cris Collinsworth, an analyst for NBC's "Sunday Night Football." "We all understand there is a lot going on in the world. … But to get anything back to normal … it just feels good."

Normal, of course, is relative in 2020. And the NFL season will be no exception, starting with NBC's season kickoff coverage of the Chiefs-Texans game.

Social distancing rules will limit normally raucous Arrowhead Stadium to 22% capacity — about 18,000 fans, all of them required to wear masks. At least 26 teams will start the season without any fans in their stadiums, including the Vikings, who open against the Packers at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday.

"I did San Francisco Giants games in the '70s," NBC's Al Michaels said. "I'm used to doing games with no fans."

As Michaels put it, there's more mystery to this season than any other. But the key piece in this 2020 puzzle has nothing to do with wins and losses on the field.

It's not about Tom Brady moving to Tampa Bay. Or Bill Belichick moving on without him in New England.

It's not about the Raiders moving to Las Vegas and opening up a $1.8 billion stadium. Or the Rams and Chargers sharing a brand-new $5 billion home in Inglewood, Calif.

It's not about the playoffs expanding by two teams and giving us six wild-card games to watch come January.

It may not even be about a reckoning on race that has led to protests in other pro leagues, the changing of Washington's team name and an about-face by Commissioner Roger Goodell on player activism.

No, it's about whether the NFL can actually maneuver its way through a worldwide pandemic, playing 256 regular-season games, 12 playoff games and actually making it to the end of Super Bowl LV in Tampa on Feb. 7. All while operating outside the safety of a bubble.

"The league will trudge ahead," said former NFL player and current ESPN analyst Marcus Spears. "They are going to be intent on finishing the season."

Giving players the opportunity to opt out of the season — which 67 of them did, including Vikings nose tackle Michael Pierce — is what allows the NFL the clear conscience to plow forward if there is a spike in positive tests for COVID-19.

"COVID is going to reach the NFL," Spears said. "Players are going to come down with COVID. The NFL, I think, is going to present the information to us publicly, but they are going to move forward and just go about either having to replace guys or play without them."

Daily testing, strict rules governing social distancing inside NFL facilities and no preseason games helped the league make it through a month of training camp with only a minuscule percentage of players testing positive.

Operating outside of a bubble, however, does present risks the league can't control, as Major League Baseball discovered during its restart. The NFL will fine players for being irresponsible off the field, but ultimately it's up to each individual to police himself.

"And guys realize it could jeopardize our season if [test results] go the opposite way," Vikings receiver Adam Thielen said. "I think guys definitely know what's expected of them."

So, after an all-virtual offseason, no preseason games and a mere 14 padded practices, what will the NFL look like at full speed?

The general consensus is injury-filled and sloppy. Very sloppy.

But there's another, more wishful line of thinking. Let Vikings left tackle Riley Reiff explain.

"I think the play is going to be better, actually," he said.

Uh, come again?

"I think teams nailed down going over the playbook and stuff like that [virtually]," he said. "There were less distractions. Guys were taking care of their bodies" without sustaining the usual offseason and preseason wear and tear.

Vikings punter Britton Colquitt agrees. And, yes, he knows he's a punter.

"Don't say, 'Colquitt was complaining about how hard training camps are,'" he told reporters with a laugh. "I know I'm the guy standing on the field practicing my golf swing and all of that. I'm talking for [teammates]."

Colquitt said he saw teammates arriving in July fresher, more spirited and in better shape because they weren't "beaten down" in the spring.

"I'm not sitting here saying this is the way it should be, necessarily," he said. "But I thought it worked well. … It's going to be a really good thing, and I think it will show in the product in September."

Count the now-30-year-old Thielen among the players who didn't mind the virtual offseason, no preseason and abbreviated camp.

"I think I could play another 15 years if this was the schedule every year," he said.

Spears, on the other hand, said fans should brace themselves "to see a lot of football that we haven't seen in a while when it comes to not looking good."

But, he added, "It won't take long for them to get going. Before long, it will be NFL football like we know it."

Vikings All-Pro linebacker Eric Kendricks said he's thought a lot about what the product will look like.

"I guess it depends on how many newcomers you have on each side of the ball," said Kendricks, whose defense includes a total makeover of the top three cornerbacks. "It all depends. How smart is the team in general? If they can adapt to concepts, pick things up quickly.

"I think the beginning of the season, especially the first four games usually every year, everyone tries to get in their groove. See what their good at, see what kind of personnel they like. That's the same now or before. So I expect it will start off a little bit different, like it does every year."

By now, COVID-19 almost has been lumped in with all the other distractions that NFL players accept as just part of playing a sport of attrition.

"Obviously, this is a weird year with the COVID and the social distancing," Vikings defensive end Ifeadi Odenigbo said. "But the greatest teams respond to adversity. What's happened this year, [how teams have responded] will separate the Super Bowl teams from the teams that will be staying home."