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The president of the NFL Physicians Society on Monday announced the suspension of all player physical examinations indefinitely, including NFL Combine rechecks, free agent physicals, and non-Combine draft prospect exams.

But the Daily News has clarified that Dr. Anthony Casolaro’s letter to the league and NFL players’ association essentially amounted to a reiteration of new procedures already put in place during the coronavirus crisis.

Free agents and draft prospects still will be free to arrange medical exams with a neutral physician in their home city or a nearby location.

Casolaro, co-head physician for Washington’s NFL franchise, wrote that they were discontinuing physicals to protect the health of all parties and because “we believe medical resources should focus on those who are ill or in need of care.”

However, the neutral doctors available to players are primarily orthopedic physicians, doctors who don’t have offices in hospitals impacted by COVID-19, where space and supplies must be conserved.

The NFL has suspended all player physical exams, but players and prospects can still use 'neutral doctors'.
The NFL has suspended all player physical exams, but players and prospects can still use ‘neutral doctors’.

So free agents and draft prospects both still have that option to complete physicals and re-checks.

The league is working with the NFL Physicians Society, in fact, to establish a national network of physicians who could provide either 1) post-Combine rechecks for Combine attendees who require them or 2) medical exams for players that did not attend the Combine but have drawn interest from NFL clubs.

These players won’t need to travel for those exams, and their results (and the players’ collegiate medical records) will be shared with all 32 clubs.

Players and teams continued to be banned from visiting each other and completing physical exams with club medical personnel, as they have for more than a week.

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Club facilities are closed to any NFL player unless he has been receiving ongoing medical treatment by the club’s medical team.

NFL teams, the Giants included, can and will announce free agent signings as official even though the players in most cases have not yet completed a physical exam. But those contracts will be contingent upon the players eventually passing their physicals.

The NFLPA has advised agents to include language in their clients’ contracts to protect the players’ ability to re-enter free agency if they fail their eventual physicals, rather than remaining under control of the new team.