Six Pittsburgh Steelers players were absent from practice at Heinz Field on Saturday night due to coronavirus testing for irregularities, but general manager Kevin Colbert said Sunday that everything has been removed to attend team activities.
“None of these players had to be placed on Reserve / Covid-19 and will return to meetings and practice today,” Colbert said in a statement.
The Steelers held a night practice at Heinz Field. Among the players who did not practice were James Conner, center Maurkice Pouncey, defensive end Stephon Tuitt, guard David DeCastro, safety Terrell Edmunds and wide receiver Diontae Johnson. All but Pouncey were on the field during practice, and DeCastro, Edmunds and Johnson had previously missed practice time due to injury.
Coach Mike Tomlin acknowledged Saturday night that some of his players did not practice because they were ‘caught up in covide proceedings’, but he did not give any specifications.
“We will exercise all caution as we normally do and make sure we follow it fully,” Tomlin said.
The NFL issued a statement Sunday after the league’s daily tests returned several positive results from teams using the same lab in New Jersey.
“We are working with our testing partner, BioReference, to investigate these results, while the clubs are working to confirm or rule out the positive tests,” the NFL said. “Clubs take immediate precautionary measures, as set forth in the NFL-NFLPA Health and Safety Protocols, to take contact tracking, isolate individuals, and temporarily adjust the schedule, as appropriate. The other labs used for NFL testing did not have similar results. ”
The NFL uses BioReference for all coronavirus tests, but labs across the country handle the tests so teams can get results within 24 hours.
The New York Jets revealed they had 10 false positions of testing, and the Chicago Bears reported nine such cases. The Jets canceled a walk through Saturday, but practice Sunday after the previous positive test results were negative when retested. The Bears postponed their scheduled practice time a few hours, and the Cleveland Browns canceled a scheduled workout Sunday.
The Browns said in a statement that the results indicated multiple “presumptive positive cases” involving coaches, players and support staff.
Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane was told his team was one of “10 or 11” who were dealing with potential false positives because of tests that were “hoywire”.
The Steelers place four players on the reserve / covid-19 list in the early test phase at the start of training camp. No player spent more than a week on the roster, and the Steelers have not had a player test positive in the next two weeks of conditioning and practice. Padded workouts began July 28th.
“The league is doing a great job,” said veteran defensive end Tyson Alualu. ‘I know they’re learning from this. It’s probably better that they catch this early and kind of care, which I know they will. It’s hard. You never want to be a false positive and miss some of the important reps, whether it’s practicing now or especially on game day. ”
Joe Rutter is a Tribune Review staff writer. You can contact Joe via email at [email protected] or via Twitter .
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Sport | Steelers / NFL
