Unlike the NFL, most of the people who would need to be tested regularly are not employees. They are students. An NFL-style plan would not only put school system staff in the unenviable position of being tested daily, but of enforcing the same for millions of minors whose parents would understandably have objections to daily compulsory nasal swabs for their second-graders.

NFL players and staff wore physical distance trackers at work at all times, in the form of the wristwatch-like Kinexon. The devices blink red or alarm when wearers are within 6 feet of each other. All data were saved and reviewed by team personnel in the event of an infection, so that contact tracing could be done quickly and accurately if any player or staff member tested positive.

NFL employees submitted to this as part of an employment contract in order to make a full-contact sport work during a pandemic. But such devices would cause obvious privacy and mission-creep concerns for teachers and students whose data would go to local government officials and work superiors.

The NFL used facial recognition technology to create touchless, secure entry to facilities and robots to sanitize rooms.