Faced with a growing spread of COVID-19 across the NFL landscape, Commissioner Roger Goodell has mandated that all 32 teams will be placed into intensive protocols for the rest of the season. The mandate begins immediately, per a memo obtained from NFL.com.
The Cleveland Browns were already in the intensive protocols after having two players test positive in the last week. Chris Hubbard tested positive on Friday, followed by Andy Janovich on Monday. The team placed three more players — Jack Conklin, Charley Hughlett and Cody Parkey — on the reserve/COVID-19 list on Wednesday.
The intensive protocols mean, among other things, that all team meetings must be held virtually. Facemasks and mouth shields are required at all times, even within the team’s facilities and during practices.
“The upcoming holidays, beginning with Thanksgiving next week, will introduce new risks of exposure that we need to address now,” Goodell wrote in the memo, which was disseminated to all clubs on Wednesday. “Because we have a highly sophisticated program of daily testing, we know when the virus enters our facilities, which underscores the importance of contact tracing and other steps to minimize close contacts within a facility. Recent experience has highlighted the importance of minimizing high-risk close contacts; on multiple occasions, we have seen individuals identified on that basis test positive within a short time. We have also seen many instances in which effective action by clubs to minimize these close contacts prevented the virus from spreading within the club, and avoided players or coaches being ruled out of practice or games.”
The NFL sent a memo today saying all clubs must go into intensive protocols for the rest of the season, starting Saturday. All meetings virtual or in large spaces, mandatory masks/mouth shields in practice, etc. Goal is reduce close contacts, further mitigate risk of COVID spread
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) November 18, 2020