Giants cancel practice; Jets, Commanders, Eagles move indoors as Canadian wildfire smoke harms air quality

Wildfires in Canada are affecting regions of the United States. Smoke from the fires has been picked up by a swirling low pressure system, forcing areas in the central and eastern United States to be placed under air quality alerts.

The poor air quality is affecting NFL teams as well, as the New York Jets will practice indoors on Thursday due to the smoky conditions, per ESPN. They’ll be joined by the Washington Commanders, who will also practice in their bubble today, according to CBS Sports NFL insider Josina Anderson. The Eagles announced they, too, will be practicing indoors, while their rival New York Giants won’t practice at all, calling off Thursday’s work “just to let this thing settle down.”

On Wednesday, Commanders head coach Ron Rivera addressed the likelihood of his team’s move.

“We looked at the air quality index,” Rivera said Wednesday. “We reached out to our doctors, our medical personnel and asked about what our options are about practicing today, tomorrow and probably next week we’ll have to continue to monitor it.”

“We’re going to talk to the players before we go out there and tell anybody that has respiratory concerns, obviously we would excuse,” Rivera continued. “Or if they start feeling any issue during workouts we would send them inside. Then we would have to consider tomorrow potentially going inside the bubble to practice. If we can avoid it we will, but if not, if the air quality becomes a little too concerning, then we most certainly will go in.”  

The smoke from more than 100 active wildfires burning along the United States-Canadian border has traveled south into several states, but New York was notably hit hard. An air quality health advisory was in effect Wednesday for much of the state, per CBS News.