When NFL and NFLP officials landed in Nashville to review the Tennessee Titans’ Covid-19 outbreak, it put the team in a position to potentially face discipline for how it complied with the protocols they negotiated jointly. Some teams and coaches have already been fined for singular violations, and they could be ahead if the Titans find one or more issues.
The Titans currently have 10 players on their Covid-19 reserve list, and on Saturday alone they tested defensively Jeffrey Simmons and two coaches positive.
Sources say the NFL and NFLPA, which could wrap up their investigation in a few days, are investigating whether there was a breach of protocol when wearing mandatory Kinexon tracking devices, which led to gaps in the tracking data used in contact tracing, and individuals failing in a timely manner. Whether gone. Report, among other things, the symptoms they or their family members were experiencing.
Following the Titans ’outbreak and positive tests with several other teams, the NFL will call on Monday, with the head coach and GM from the league. Message: If we want to finish this season, there can be no flexibility. Everyone has a role. Protocols don’t fail, people do. Hopefully these situations are a wakeup call.
Meanwhile, the Patriots-Chiefs game originally scheduled for today has been postponed to Monday or Tuesday after New England quarterback Cam Newton and Chief Practice Squad QB Jordan Ta’amu tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Both facilities closed immediately.
The New England tests have been back clean since Saturday, a source said. If both teams don’t have much positivity during the Sunday, the game can be played on Monday – the choice of both teams is to interrupt the schedule as little as possible.
Sources say a change made by the league means pushing the playoffs in a week to make a bye-week – week 18 – controlling the schedule change due to covid. That would mean just one week between the championship games and the Super Bowl, but it wouldn’t be unprecedented.
The league always expects to have positive tests and conditions like this and Chief Medical Officer Dr .. Alan Seals says it over and over again. Caution and limiting the spread is key. Since the Patriots-Chiefs game was postponed and the Falcons game was not last week (despite a positive test from Cornbach AJ Terrell), the answer is that it was determined that Newton and Tamamu had much closer contacts than Terrell.
If the Patriots play Chiefs on Monday – with New England potentially flying to Kansas City on Monday – and Denver is on track for their next game against the Broncos, there’s a real chance that Brian Hoyer will both start. Once the virus is out of his body and Newton has to pass two Covid-19 tests, it is no easy task whether he has symptoms or not.
While the Titans have had 13 new positive cases since last Sunday’s game in Minnesota, while the previous week when tested positive by a practice-squad player and coach, the Vikings have had no positive cases and traveled to Houston on Saturday for Sunday’s game. Against the Texans. Protocols generally do not allow for game-day testing, but all Vikings players and staff will pass a quick result “care issue” at the Team Hotel on Sunday morning, before they are allowed to enter the stadium.
The list says that this is something that a league-wide organization can be set up if the situation gives a rant, sources say.
The Titans’ facility remains closed until further notice, and it takes days of continuous testing to replace it. So far, their game against Bill continues.
The Vikings ‘facility reopened Thursday under complementary intensive protocols, including daily care checks, full virtual meetings and mandatory use of personal protective equipment in practice, masks or mouthwash and gloves (except for throwing out quarterbacks’ hands).
Speaking of the Titans, multiple coaches have tested positive who spend games in the coaching booth above. Plexiglass dividers have been added to the area this season and social gaps have been observed, but people are mostly stable and air flow is not so good on the sidelines. Between that field and the team plane, there were a number of risk factors for the COVID-19 transmission on the Titans ’trip to Minnesota that may have contributed to additional new positive cases in recent days.
They will probably return to their cold-clean building with a large number of advanced protocols, along with other common sense changes – to make sure playlists and backup playlists don’t spend time close to each other, for example. One of the many small changes aimed at keeping everything intact.
