Even the NFL can’t succeed over reality.
The return of the league has given enthusiasts a blessed dose of normalcy, allowing us a little bit that the country remains severely affected by a pandemic, but Tuesday’s announcement that the Tennessee Titans and Minnesota Vikings will postpone their activities is a sobering reminder that COVID -19 is a highly contagious virus and not even the strictest protocols can completely eliminate the threat of spread.
The Titans announced Tuesday that they had had eight positive COVID-19 tests, 3 through players, five through other team staff, after Tennessee outdoor supporters coach and defensive player Shane Bowen did not arrive in Minnesota for Sunday’s match due to COVID-19. Protocols.
The Vikings said they tested positive.
The fact that the NFL reached this level without an impressive epidemic reflects the seriousness with which everyone involved took the disease and protocols to protect against its spread. Everyone from Roger Goodell to the players in the technical staff knows how well they know. this season is underway, and no one needs the NFL to repeat the debacles of primary league baseball and school football.
“If we get COVID,” said Corey Linsley, the center of the Green Bay Packers, “it’s out of our pocket. “
The players pushed to make the daily trials bigger and the league agreed. The groups have redesigned their educational facilities and stadiums to allow social estinement. The NFL imposed heavy fines, valued at $1. 75 million last week, on coaches who didn’t know how to wear their masks well.
But the epidemic was, in many ways, inevitable. If it wasn’t for the Titans, it would have been a team.
“It is not unexpected; as (NFL Medical Director Allen) Sills and others have pointed out, there will be players and staff who will test positive for the season,” Goodell said in a memorandum sent Tuesday afternoon to all 32 teams.
Here’s a copy of the memo @nflcommish sent today to 32:pic. twitter. com/kHJ3GeY8HX
There are too many people (players, coaches, help staff) worried in a game where close contact is inherent. The odds were high that someone went through the cracks of the NFL’s rigorous daily testing program because of the low viral load and enduring it in the results.
This, for those who think the mask fines were excessive, that’s why the NFL is so adamant that the touch wears a mask.
More importantly, the NFL, unlike the NBA, WNBA, NHL, Major League Soccer and NWSL, plays in a bubble. No matter how restricted players and coaches restrict their interaction with the general public, there will be, and there are dangers: greater in some puts in others.
In fact, it wasn’t until Monday that Packers coach Matt LaFleur expressed his fear of the increase in cases in and around Green Bay. The region is now one of the country’s hot spots, with Brown County reporting a seven-day moving average of 77,44 positive instances consistent with 100,000.
“All it takes is a man, ” said LaFleur. “If a man succeeds, he can finish the full operation. “
That doesn’t mean the Titans epidemic is the beginning of an abrupt ending in the NFL season.
Baseball’s long career seemed bleak in early August, when St. Louis Cardinals closed their doors for two weeks and the Miami Marlins needed “Hello!They call me ” because of the rate of rotation of the list due to COVID outbreaks. the league solved things and the playoffs started on Tuesday with the full season.
The NFL has less flexibility with its schedule; You cannot delete the byes or ask groups to play two matches in a week, not without threatening the physical form of the players. But if the Titans are closed until Saturday, I could play a double name on Monday night.
There’s also a week-long break between the convention championships and the Super Bowl, a week off that hasn’t existed. There is no explanation as to why the NFL cannot eliminate it, pushing the wild card and divisional rounds a week and employing this week now open after the end of the normal season of makeup games.
But the NFL can’t many more epidemics without compromising its competitive balance too much. This means that you will have to bend your protocols, which are already possibly the strictest of all leagues without bubbles. Goodell also advised groups to “review the steps. “have taken steps to minimize close contact, especially when traveling, and “review their procedures” to attract potential new players.
It would go even further. Instead of fines for coaches who can’t wear their mask well, yes, Sean Payton, who talks to you, will now have to be an automatic expulsion from a game. If players or coaches have damaged protocol or been reckless during their vacation hours of service, suspend them for the next game.
Difficult? Yes, but COVID-19 may not magically disappear in the short term, and the effects of an epidemic have spread beyond one or two walk-in closets.
Playing the NFL season as a pandemic was never going to be easy, even though the NFL has so far controlled to make it look like this.
Follow USA TODAY sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.