The Indianapolis Colts (3-2) were hoping to for a routine day on Friday as they prepare to host the Cincinnati Bengals (1-3-1) at Lucas Oil Stadium in Week 6.
But then head coach Frank Reich woke up to the news that the team had four positive tests for COVID-19. Despite the team being diligent and focused on keeping the virus at bay, the team had a potential problem on their hands.
Fortunately, the four members of the organization wound up having false-positives, and the game has been cleared. Reich was surprised to wake up to the news that the Colts had positive tests.
“I was having a long conversation with Mr. (Jim) Irsay [Thursday] night just talking about how well I think our players and our organization has done in this regard,” Reich said Friday. “I mean you’re never foolproof here. It can always creep in, a virus is a virus, right? But I think our guys have done such a good job. We’re not perfect, but I think we’ve been very diligent. So yeah, I was surprised.”
The Colts dodged a bullet. With the tests being so close to Sunday, it may have been difficult for the Colts to get the game in as scheduled—though rescheduling the game wouldn’t have been a major problem it turns out.
Reich detailed what the process was like, which included waking up at 5:00 am in the morning and talking with general manager Chris Ballard about what the next step was going to be before the re-tests were administered.
“It was 5-something – was probably the conversation when Chris (Ballard) and I were on the phone,” Reich said. “Pretty much – our conversation was, ‘All right Chris, you stay on point with the league. I’m just going to stay on point with the coaches and the players, getting the coaches ready.’ So really, my next calls were to the coordinators just to say, ‘OK, let’s plan on playing Sunday until we hear anything further, but let’s have plan B) and C) ready if we’re playing Monday night, if we’re playing Tuesday.’ Then plan D) was if the thing had gotten postponed. Really, I was more concerned about plan A), Sunday, plan B) Monday or plan C, Tuesday. Let Chris kind of work through it with the league – just me kind of get with the coaches and players and make sure we’re on point.”
The Colts wound up avoiding a big scare and their game is on schedule for Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET where they will look to come away with a win and enter the Week 7 bye with a 4-2 record.
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