David Baker: Hall of Fame Game could have 1st full stadium since pandemic

The 2020 NFL season was played before limited crowds and, in some cases, empty stadiums. That could all change by the Hall of Fame Game in August.

"I think there's a very good shot that we'll be the first full stadium for football in the United States in nearly two years," David Baker, the Pro Football Hall of Fame's president, said on SiriusXM NFL Radio, according to Howard Balzer of Sports Illustrated.

"And, to me, that's going to be good for the rest of the country and for the football season ahead. It shows that we can get our economy going and our kids educated and make even more advances on health care. But we're going to be ready."

The Hall of Fame Game is the NFL's first preseason contest. Although the league canceled the 2020 game - as well as the entire preseason - due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2021 edition is currently scheduled to be held Thursday, Aug. 5 at Tom Benson Stadium in Canton, Ohio. Baker says he has no reason to believe those plans will change.

"I think by the time we get to August, we're gonna be ready to go. The vaccine is picking up, obviously the trend line is in the right direction right now," he said. "I think the NFL has a wonderful study that they did with the CDC that basically said that there wasn't one infection that could be traced to the 1.2 million people that went to a game.

"At the Pro Football Hall of Fame, we've got new technology that takes the temperature of as many as 70 people at a time as they go through the Hall. So, there's a lot of things we can do. ... We're going to rely very heavily on the experts at the NFL."

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