New Jersey’s Governor Phil Murphy announced today that the state of New Jersey will begin lifting restrictions on professional sports teams. This means that both the Philadelphia 76ers and Philadelphia Flyers can now get back to work at their training facilities in Camden and Vorhees.

It’s also great news for the New Jersey Devils and the New York football teams that play in New Jersey.

Phil Murphy: 

“Professional sports teams in NJ may return to training and even competition,” Murphy said, “if their leagues choose to move in that direction. We have been in constant discussions with teams about necessary protocols to protect the health and safety of players, coaches, and personnel.”

The NBA announced last month that May 8th would be the earliest day to reopen team practice facilities for player workouts. With reopening, the league put rules in place to allow for safe and controlled environments for player training. This included the following:

• No more than four players in the facility at any one time
• No head or assistant coaches participating
• Prohibit group activities such as scrimmages

Definitely a step in the right direction as we all continue to learn more about the proposed plan to resume the NBA and head straight into the playoffs down in Disney World.

The NBA has Orlando/Disney World as a clear frontrunner for return-to-play site for resuming 2019-20 season, sources tell me and @sam_amick. Orlando has gained significant seriousness among other cites such as Las Vegas.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 20, 2020

The NHL is following similar suit announcing plans to resume play as well. The NHLPA also just approved a 24-team playoff format for if/when the season resumes.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will hold a 4:30 news conference today to discuss the league’s plan to return to play.

Much like how we began quarantine with all sports leagues closing, it looks like sports will be leading the charge to return to a sense of normalcy. Hopefully by mid-to-late July, we’ll have the NBA, NHL, and MLB all back in our lives while we anticipate the start of the 2020 NFL season.