Tag: cam newton covid

Patriots CB, Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore tests positive for COVID-19

On Tuesday, Patriots cornerback and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore tested positive for COVID-19.

On Tuesday, Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, tested positive for COVID-19, and was confirmed as having tested positive after re-tests and re-checks. He is the third Patriots player to test positive and be confirmed positive since last Friday. Then, starting quarterback Cam Newton tested positive, and on Sunday, reserve defensive lineman Bill Murray tested positive. Newton’s positive test pushed the Patriots’ Sunday night game with the Chiefs back to Monday night as the team had to have two days of negative tests before travelling, and then had to travel to Kansas City, where they lost, 26-10, with Brian Hoyer and Jarret Stidham as their reserve quarterbacks.

Per Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, Gilmore is the only player to test positive from Tuesday’s round of tests. The Patriots have cancelled Wednesday practice and will hold virtual meetings. They now have to have two straight days of negative tests before they would be able to host the Broncos on Sunday. In addition, the Chiefs will want to make sure they haven’t got a problem on their hands. Gilmore was seen hugging Patrick Mahomes after the Monday night game, which could be a problem.

The Patriots are the second NFL team to have what could reasonably be called an outbreak — the Titans have had 22 players and staff members test positive, which led to the postponement until Week 7 of their scheduled Week 4 game against the Steelers. The Titans also had two more new positive tests. That puts their Sunday game against the Bills in jeopardy.

As to Newton and Gilmore returning to play, the NFL’s guidelines indicate that if a player is asymptomatic, he can return five days after his initial positive test if he returns two consecutive negative PCR tests at least 24 hours apart. If a player is asymptomatic, he can return 10 days after his initial positive test. And if a player is symptomatic, he can return 10 days after his initial positive test IF at least 72 hours have passed since he last showed symptoms.

It is not known whether Newton and Gilmore are symptomatic, but the odds are not great for Newton’s return for the Broncos game, and Gilmore is most likely out until the Patriots’ Week 7 game against the 49ers. The team has a Week 6 bye.

Patriots add Cam Newton to COVID-19/reserve list; Newton will not play Sunday

per reports, Cam Newton has tested positive for COVID and is now out indefinitely.

Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Field Yates, Patriots quarterback Cam Newton has a positive COVID test and will not be available when New England takes on the Chiefs on Sunday. Schefter also reports that per a course, the Patriots have engaged in mass testing and re-testing, and there are no other positive tests in the organization.

That, of course, is subject to change.

“Late last night, we received notice that a Patriots player tested positive for COVID-19,” the team said in a Saturday statement. The player immediately entered self-quarantine. Several additional players, coaches, and staff who have been in close contact with the player received point-of-care tests this morning, and all were negative for COVID-19.

“We are in close consultation with the NFL, as well as our team of independent doctors and specialists, and will follow their guidance regarding our scheduled trip to Kansas City and game against the Chiefs. The health and safety of our team, as well as out opponent, are of highest priority.”

It’s obviously a massive blow for the Patriots as they prepare to defend their 2-1 record against Patrick Mahomes’ team. Through his first three games as Tom Brady’s replacement, Newton has completed 68.1% of his passes for 714 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions, adding 35 rushing attempts for 149 yards and four touchdowns.

On Wednesday, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was asked if the outbreak in the Tennessee Titans’ facility had him thinking differently about handling COVID in-house.

“Yeah, well we monitor everything every day. We don’t just do it when there’s a problem or something comes up somewhere else,” Belichick said, per CBS Boston. “We do it on a daily basis and make everyone — because this is everybody, it’s not just players, it’s players and coaches and staff and everybody else — make everyone aware of what … if we’re not doing something, or if we can do something better, then we talk to them about how we can do it better. So we try to monitor it the best we can. And we, I think, are pretty vigilant with — really all of us, it’s not any one person, but just all of us — keeping an eye on things that if anybody sees something that’s not the way we talked about it or maybe something that’s a little off or that we need to take a better look at, then we do that.”

Not that this is the fault of the Patriots’ organization per se; the recent outbreak in and around the White House is a better indicator of what happens when people don’t follow clear and obvious preventative methods. But the Patriots are now without their starting quarterback for the foreseeable future, and we don’t yet know if that will lead to further positive tests.