NEW YORK (AP) – The NFL had 77 positive COVID-19 tests from 11 teams re-examined by a New Jersey lab for false positives, and all of those tests came back negative.
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The competition asked the New Jersey BioReference lab to examine the results, and those 77 tests are re-tested to make sure they were in the wrong positions.
Among teams that reported false positives, the Minnesota Vikings said they had 12, the New York Jets 10 and the Chicago Bears nine.
The Jets canceled a walk through Saturday night, but had a full practice Sunday morning, after the previously positive tests came back negative. The Bears move their practice schedule for Sunday morning to noon.
The Detroit Lions had a player with a false positive test from the same lab in New Jersey and he was kept out of practice Sunday, a league source told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the league and the team did not disclose test results.
The Pittsburgh Steelers said they had six false positions and that players will be back in practice Monday. The Philadelphia Eagles kept fourth players out of Sunday’s draw. The Cleveland Browns initially canceled the practice, but after re-testing failed tests, they decided to have their training.
There are five labs nationwide serving the 32 teams, with only the New Jersey facility this weekend the false positives.
The number of positive COVID-19 tests of a specific facility that may in fact be false proves the precarious position that the NFL is in less than three weeks from the regular season opener.
“Sure probably better that this happened now than three weeks from now,” said general manager Buffalo Bills Brandon Beane, whose club had some of those positive results. “But it looks like every few weeks, or even every week, something happens. Who knows what the next curveball will be?”
Beane said tests in the Northeast Polder had gone “hill” and called it “a lab issue and not a real problem with our boys at the moment” after several bills were kept out of practice.
Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 – even a false positive on a repeat test – is required to have two more negative tests before being cleared to return.
The NFL uses BioReference for all of its COVID-19 tests, though tests are conducted by labs across the country to ensure teams get results quickly – hopefully within 24 hours. After this weekend, there had been four confirmed positive tests for players who were at training camps.
“Clubs are taking immediate precautionary measures as outlined in the NFL-NFLPA’s health and safety protocols to track contact, isolate individuals, and temporarily adjust the schedule, as appropriate,” the NFL said in a statement. “The other labs used for NFL testing did not have similar results.”
Jets offensive lineman Leo Koloamatangi, who refrained from playing this season due to family health concerns, tweeted: “I just wish for safety and great health for my brothers and their families at the moment. As it turns out, testing is not as reliable as it used to be. we all had hope. “
The Bears were alerted Sunday morning to the test results.
“There I was really excited about the way we were going to communicate with the coordinators, the coaches, the players early on, and just let them know, ‘Stop it for now. We’ll slow down this thing. Let’s work through a bit here, ” said Bears coach Matt Nagy.
“And then we were able to get those players and everyone involved in the positive test, we were able to get them in and of course test again and come back with the second test, and it came back all negative. So now we had to go, ‘Well, what are we doing?’ That was when we went ahead and thought we could go ahead with exercises. We slowed it down. “
Beane stressed the need for transparency in the Bills’ organization and said some players were at a conference call with NFL Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sills.
“We had an open dialogue with our players,” he explained. “We even had some of our leadership players play with Dr. Sills this morning just to hear directly from him, who is aware of all these tests that have gone a bit in the hairline here in the Noordeastpolder.
“And I think that was good for them to hear, because of course, if you’re going to be out there tackling and blocking and things like that, passing the ball, people can get weird if we miss some guys.”
The Browns said initial lab results indicated multiple “presumptive positive cases” involving coaches, players and staff. The team did not disclose the number of positive tests and had the planned practice resumed four hours after it was canceled.
The team also conducted an in-depth cleaning of the facility in Berea, Ohio.
“We have completed our retests of each initiative’s presumably positive result from yesterday among players, coaches and staff,” a team spokesman said.
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“All have returned as negative, which is consistent with the irregularities in the multi-team competition. As a result, we are reopening our building and will resume football activities this afternoon. By protocol, the persons with test results in question can go it do not rebuild until they get another negative test result tomorrow. “
