The Bears then had all nine people who tested positive came to Halas Hall for follow-up tests. All nine tests were negative, and it soon became known that Saturday’s testing returned several positive tests across the NFL from teams served by the same lab in New Jersey.
At that point, the Bears move Sunday practice to 1:30 p.m.
“I gave about a 15-minute warning and we had 140 people on a Zoom call at 9 in the morning,” Nagy said. “We were able to chat through what our timeline will be today. They adapted to the run. I had 1-on-1 conversations with players on the team who had questions or concerns. Everything was completely open. Everything was completely honest. “We are together with this thing. We are a family. Everyone wants to know where things are. So all we can do is give them what we know.”
To that end, the Zoom call was to keep in line with the organization’s philosophy of being transparent and honest.
“Ryan and I felt it was very important to make sure our players and their families and our coaches and support staff and their families knew what was happening and heard it from us,” Nagy said. “They understood, they asked some questions. Alternately, when such a thing comes down, you will ask questions. That is human nature. They want to know the ‘why’ part. And so, it is easy for us to be able to ask them. to tell: “Hey, this is what we know. We’ve never had this before, but I promise you, you will get every honesty and care about how we approach this thing, and if you trust us and you realize that we will never get in the way of you or your family. put, then let’s practice. Let’s do our deal, ‘and that’s what they did. That’s a credit to her. They did not fly. ‘
Prepared for a multitude of scenarios involving COVID-19 helped the Bears weather Sunday’s storm.
“If you enter the season as a leader or really anyone in this building and your kind of prep for this game, it will not take you off,” Nagy said. “This is definitely the year of the contingency plan. You need to have ‘something like’ and backups in everything you do.
“Everyone understands it right in our building. We always say ‘expect the unexpected’ and we talk about adaptation and it can be adapted on the run. And that’s kind of what’s happened here in the last 12 hours.”
