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The Tennessee Titans announced this Tuesday that 8 people in the team tested positive for Coronavirus, three players and five team personnel members. This is the first Covid-19 related issue we have faced since September 10th, when the season started, and it raised all types of flags in the league.
Tests were held this Monday back in Tennessee and the 8 positive results were later confirmed by the NFL after doing a second test. Those who tested positive are all asymptomatic and they were all placed on the Reserve Covid-19 list, as per NFL’s new protocols. There was no official decision made by the NFL on Tuesday, but according to different reports, the Titans’ facilities were shut down until Saturday, but there are no plans to suspend games, at least as of first reports.
The Titans played the Minnesota Vikings on week 3 of the new NFL season, and even though the team already confirmed there were no positive tests through Tuesday morning, the team’s facilities were also closed indefinitely, just as a precaution.
NFL Commissioner reacts to Titans’ positive Covid-19 tests
As all other major American leagues did, the NFL has taken extreme precautions during this pandemic and new protocols have been set for all teams and everyone involved with teams and players during the season. Roger Goodell, NFL commissioner said in a memo on Tuesday that positive testing “was not unexpected”. “There will be players and staff who will test positive during the season”, and knowing this, the league has worked hard with team officials and the Players Association to be able to enforce different measures that will ensure safety and processes to apply when this happens, so that things can move forward as quickly and easily as possible.
The NFL season goes on as planned
Team sources confirmed that the Titans are moving on after the news on Tuesday, and while facilities are closed and physical training will not take place this week, at least, the team will prepare this week’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers mainly through virtual film meetings.
The Steelers also confirmed, via head coach Mike Tomlin, that they’re preparing to play on Sunday as initially planned. Tomlin said that “in the NFL says it’s safe for the Steelers to travel to Nashville, then we’re going to go down there with the intention of playing and playing to win”.
As part of the protocol, NFL is still working on analyzing which contacts were made by the Titans’ affected members, in locker rooms, flights and so on, in order to get more information and be able to keep doing tests for the team and people involved, including players’ family and any other contacts that might have been made during the past few days.
As of now, NFL plans to keep on going with the regular season as planned, let’s hope that the safety measures and protocols help give this situation a quick resolution, and most of all, let this be a call of attention for players and staff, so that extra precautions can be taken from now on.
