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NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported Friday evening that New Orleans Saints backup center Will Clapp tested positive for COVID-19, ruling him out for Sunday’s Divisional Round matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Saints immediately went through contact tracing protocol and found no high-risk close contacts near Clapp; Pelissero added Saturday morning that no playoff teams received additional positive test results, meaning New Orleans appears to have avoided an outbreak.
That’s a different scenario from where they were just two weeks ago, when star running back Alvin Kamara tested positive for the coronavirus and sidelined the entire running backs corps as high-risk close contacts. Fortunately, they were able to slide Ty Montgomery into the role (he spent most of the week in wide receivers meetings, avoiding close contact with Kamara and the others) and he ran for 100-plus rushing yards for the second time in his career.
But we aren’t out of the woods just yet. There’s another round of testing to be completed before Sunday’s kickoff, and it’s possible a last-minute positive result takes someone out of action against Tampa Bay. So we’ll be remaining cautiously optimistic right up until the opening whistle. That’s just part of playing football in a pandemic.
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