With NFL planning to start on time, will Dallas Cowboys train in Oxnard or in Frisco?
Having learned a valuable lesson from the 132-day NFL lockout in 2011, Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy is working backwards in preparing his team for the 2020 season.
In 2011, McCarthy was coming off winning a Super Bowl title with the Green Bay Packers at AT&T Stadium and coming up with contingency plans for the offseason since they didn’t know if the lockout was going to swallow OTAs or mini camp.
But in 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, everybody knows the first team gatherings won’t be until training camps begin in the latter half of July. But nobody knows where, so McCarthy has sought to minimize that variable by building two training camp schedules.
McCarthy has drawn up a plan for holding camp in Oxnard, where the Cowboys have held it every year since 2012, as well as a plan for holding it at The Star in Frisco should factors dictate that approach.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic and the likelihood that fans will not be allowed to attend — and not to mention the different rules that are likely to be in place for teams conducting activities within California — the team may just elect to hold camp at its Frisco headquarters.
The NFL, meanwhile, expects to start the season on-time, and in accordance with that the league plans to release its full season schedule this week, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said Saturday morning. The first preseason game, just three months away, is the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game between the Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers on Aug. 6.
The Cowboys are likely to open camp 15 days prior to that game, so that would be July 22. The only question now is where will they be?
