EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — For the past six-plus months, the Pittsbugh Steelers and New York Giants have been working virtually and eventually on the field to get ready for a season opener that came about despite the pain, tragedy and uneasiness caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s been a tough road for Mike Tomlin’s Steelers and Joe Judge’s Giants heading into a nationally televised Monday night game. The path has been no easier for NFL officials.

This is going to be a different year for them, too. Referee Craig Wrolstad and his crew will be handling the Steelers-Giants game. Like the league’s other officiating crews, they have been getting ready virtually for the most part, said Dawn Aponte, the NFL’s chief football administrative officer.

While all officiating crews change personnel every season and become a new unit, a set crew won’t be the norm this season. Regionalization of officials is in.

“With the regionalized aspect of it, there are not only the standard crews that we are used to seeing, there will be officials swapped in and out on a pretty regular basis,” Aponte said. “Where we can keep them together we obviously will, but that’s been a significant focus of this offseason. We have had a number of meetings with them virtually. They have not yet been to training camp.”

In some ways, the new crews are spending more time together because of virtual meetings, Aponte said.

What will definitely be different for the officials is traveling, particularly air travel. Aponte estimates only 30 to 50% of the officials will take planes on any given week.

“It depends on where the games are,” she said. “Our officials are all across the country. The majority of our referees reside on the West Coast, so it is difficult to keep them just West. They will need to fly. Where we can, normally we keep the officials on a two-hour drive time. This year we relaxed some of those rules to allow them to drive further.”

The officials have protocols, too. They must have a negative result from a COVID-19 test before they travel. The test takes 24 to 36 hours to process.

After arriving in the city where they are working, they will need a point-of-care COVID-19 test the day before the game. Those results are available in roughly 20 minutes, Aponte said.