The NFL world is collectively holding their breath right now. Atlanta Falcons rookie corner AJ Terrell, takenbwith the No. 16 overall pick in April’s draft, has become the first player in the regular season to test positive for Covid-19. His swift and full recovery is the paramount concern, but there also has to be some apprehension as the league’s testing, contact tracing and protective measures now are being tested themselves for the first time since the games have actually begun and teams are interacting with other teams.
Last week Sunday, six days ago, Terrell was on the field for 89 snaps while defending against the Dallas Cowboys. As of this time, no other Falcons players or Cowboys players have tested positive.
#Falcons CB A.J. Terrell’s positive COVID-19 test came back overnight, so he wasn’t at walkthru today, I’m told. No one else was positive, and all other individuals tested again this morning, as usual. Those results will come back early Sunday morning.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 26, 2020
The Falcons returned back to Atlanta following the game against the Cowboys and will host the Chicago Bears on Sunday. The Cowboys boarded a plane on Saturday to travel to Seattle to take on the Seahawks.
NFL players, coaches and medical personnel (Tier 1) as well as other essential members (Tier 2) undergo daily testing via BioReference Laboratories, who have a testing facility at every team’s practice facility. They are also equipped with daily symptom screening and temperature checks for those entering the facility.
Even with the daily testing, however, it is unknown currently when Terrell may have contracted the virus, and if he was presymptomatic he could have unknowingly spread it to others at any point after that. The virus can take between 2 to 14 days to present symptoms, but is spreadable before they show.
Terrell will be sidelined for at least five days, in the case the result is a false positive, and at least 10 days if it’s a verified positive. A player must have two negative results at least 24 hours apart in order to return to the facility.
Players have electronic monitoring devices on them as the move through their facilities, which makes contact tracing much easier in the controlled environment, but there is no bubble like with the NBA and NHL seasons, meaning players are susceptible to exposure at other points in their day.
The NFL has handed out over $1 million in fines to teams and coaches for violating the mask guidelines during games. On Friday, the league sent out a memo indicating one team was under investigation for having “unauthorized locker room access”, violating the mandate of who or how many people are allowed to be in close proximity to each other. That team remains unknown.
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