Ohio should be the NFL’s bubble for the 2020 season

Game locations

Assuming the NFL doesn’t have fans attend games, which in a bubble would be the obvious answer, the stadiums used don’t have to be enormous or elaborate. They just need to be able to give a television crew access and the necessary materials to produce the game.

For the purposes of this, there are at least 13 stadiums within three hours of Columbus, and still in Ohio, that could be used for the NFL games. This would allow the schedule to remain the same, considering there are at least three prime-time games a week. The prime-time games would be played in Columbus to keep everything as central as possible.

From there, the 1:00 Sunday games would be played at the furthest destinations, with the exception of one game in Columbus to allow ample time to clean the stadium for the Sunday night game. Having further destinations played earlier eliminates any possibility for overnights in cities other than Columbus.

This would then leave the 4:00 games to be played at the closer destinations. This would ensure that all players are back in Columbus each night, eliminating the need for hotels outside of Columbus and keeping the bubble as central to Columbus as possible.

This would be the only time teams would be allowed to use locker rooms. Each player would pack their own bag in their hotel room and then use the locker room for changing only. Halftime would be done like little league with each team heading to one of the ends of the field, keeping everyone outside as much as possible.