DeMaurice Smith is preparing players for the uncertainty and changes that the coronavirus pandemic has placed around the game of football.

Though there haven't been any firm decisions yet, the executive director of the NFL Players Association hinted toward the need for mass testing as an important step for returning to football.

"The benchmarks that it seems that are somewhat consistent is the need for mass testing. I haven't heard anyone who hasn't emphasized mass testing in the community for measuring how and to what extent things can return to somewhat normalcy," Smith said.

"I don't have the answers right now. Knowing the availability of widespread testing is something we would definitely want to know -- the availability of kits. I certainly wouldn't want to be in a situation where we are making a choice to taking test resources away from some group of people to provide them to another group of people. That raises ethical issues. We'd also want to know the information that's coming from that test ... what's coming from that test?"

One week after the NBA and NBPA agreed to a plan to withhold 25% of each player's paycheck beginning May 15, Smith acknowledged that the NFL-NFLPA collective bargaining agreement doesn't have a force majeure provision like the NBA that can be enacted to allow teams to cut a player's salary because of the cancellation of games.

"Our salaries are tied to revenue. The CBA is clear on how that's calculated. It's also clear about the obligations to the parties in the event of cancellations of games," Smith said. "[There's] an obligation for the parties to get together and negotiate in good faith as far as projecting the salary cap. We have provisions in place where we know process-wise what happens. The only thing we don't have to plug into the formula is exactly knowing what's going to happen. We certainly will be engaging in those projections as we go forward."