Stephon Gilmore and Patrick Mahomes hugged and chatted in the moments after the New England Patriots’ 26-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. It was one of those iconic moments of sportsmanship. The 2019 Defensive Player of the Year was likely saying nice things to the 2018 NFL MVP and the 2019 Super Bowl MVP.
But with Gilmore testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, the moment has been shaded with complications. Gilmore was inches from Mahomes’ face — and neither player was wearing a mask. We don’t know that Gilmore had the novel coronavirus at the time, but we do know, per Pro Football Talk, that Gilmore was among the 20 players who were within close contact with quarterback Cam Newton, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday. Gilmore traveled to Kansas City on a plane with 20 players who had close contact with Newton.
And here’s Gilmore, getting face to face with Mahomes.
Postgame with Mahomes and Gilmore. pic.twitter.com/0wRe5dajuL
— Michael Giardi (@MikeGiardi) October 7, 2020
By the NFL’s standards, Mahomes should go on the reserve/COVID-19 list, because he has had close contact with a now-positive person. But of course, that was true of Gilmore and 19 other players. And the NFL didn’t require the Patriots to make those 20 players inactive. In fact, the league allowed those 20 players to fly and briefly stay in a hotel for an afternoon before playing a football game.
And after seeing the outbreak in Tennessee, where it took days before the first positive test led to the virus’ spread among Titans players and staffers, the NFL delayed the Patriots-Chiefs game just one day. In turn, the league may be further endangering the health of the Chiefs’ and Patriots’ players and staffers.
The image of Mahomes and Gilmore shows the NFL is botching its management of the novel coronavirus. Even if Gilmore wasn’t positive and there was no transmission of COVID-19, the possibility is there. That’s irresponsible enough.
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