After Patriots cornerback and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore tested positive on Tuesday for COVID-19, New England’s Sunday game against the Broncos was put in jeopardy. The Patriots must now have two straight days of no positive tests before that game can go on as scheduled, and they’ve had three positive tests since last Friday — Gilmore, quarterback Cam Newton, and reserve defensive lineman Bill Murray.
On Wednesday morning, ESPN’s Dianna Russini reported that a player for the Raiders had tested positive for COVID-19. No surprise for a team that was recently fined by the league after several players appeared maskless for a charity fundraiser led by tight end Darren Waller, and whose head coach, Jon Gruden, seems incapable of wearing his mask on the sideline. The Raiders are scheduled to play the Chiefs this Sunday, but that’s now under watch for the same reasons. In addition, the Chiefs might want to get extra stringent about their testing, given these pictures of Gilmore hugging Patrick Mahomes after the Chiefs’ 26-10 Monday night win.
His fiancée is pregnant. This about so much more than Pat Mahomes. Maybe stop letting players shake hands and chat postgame, NFL https://t.co/A504BnqXUL
— Perri Goldstein (@perri_goldstein) October 7, 2020
And given the Titans’ ongoing issues — they had two more positive tests this week, bringing the team total up to 22 players and staffers — it’s now looking like a schedule avalanche heading into Week 5. Neil Greenberg of the Washington Post sums it up neatly here:
Patriots, Titans and Raiders reportedly have one or more players test positive for coronavirus.
Raiders play the Chiefs, who played Patriots last week.
Titans play the Bills, who played Raiders last week.
Patriots play the Broncos.
Do any of those games happen in Week 5?
— Neil Greenberg (@ngreenberg) October 7, 2020
On Monday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent out a memorandum after a conference call with all 32 teams in which it was stated that there will be new and more comprehensive protocols, and adherence to those protocols will be more stringently monitored. In addition, penalties for refusal to adhere to those protocols will be punished by anything up to potential forfeits of games.
Not to steal Goodell’s thunder, but we’ve got forfeits in the rear-view right now, and objects are exactly as large as they appear. And the NFL is looking the concept of “unnecessary risk” square in the face. The league has several Trump bros at the ownership level, but even the most inexplicably fervent Trump supporter in any industry would not want to replicate the dumpster fire happening in the White House right now.
How to solve this — or, at least to mitigate the risk? The NBA, WNBA, NHL, and Major League Baseball have all worked with “bubble” scenarios in which players and staff are quarantined to a greater or lesser degree, and it’s time for the NFL and NFLPA to agree on a similar paradigm. Letting people wander wherever they want, and telling teams after the fact that they have to stay in their home cities on bye weeks, won’t be enough to save the NFL season from huge chunks of games being ripped out of the schedule, or the season being postponed or cancelled entirely.
If you think that’s alarmist, you don’t understand how this virus works.
The NFLPA has resisted a bubble, predominantly because the players don’t want it. Of course the players don’t want it. Nobody wants it. But it may be the only way to save the season, and the NFL already has the paradigm in place.
Every year for Super Bowl week, the NFL takes over two major hotels near the stadium, with media activities happening at or near the hotels, practices cordoned off to outsiders except for pool reporters, and expanded security measures for fans, media, players, coaches, and staff. For the league to expand that from two teams to 32 would be complicated, but not the logistical nightmare some may indicate. And when the NFL is clipping $14.5 billion in annual revenue with broadcast deals about to blow those numbers out of the water, cost is no excuse.
It is time for Goodell and NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith to sit down (with masks, and correctly socially distanced, of course) and hammer this out. Forget the complications. Forget the annoyed voices. The NFL is on the verge of a massive logistical and health crisis, and it must take all available measures to avoid it.