The Titans and Vikings‘ football activities are on hold for the time being due to a Titans coronavirus outbreak. Here is the latest from perhaps the NFL’s defining September story:
- The NFL is keeping open the possibility of moving the Steelers-Titans game to Monday, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. The league wants to keep the Tennessee home game scheduled for Sunday but views Monday as a contingency plan that would allow more time for testing and contract tracing.
- Some of the players involved in the outbreak have surfaced. The Titans have placed defensive lineman DaQuan Jones, long snapper Beau Brinkley and practice squad tight end Tommy Hudson on the reserve/COVID-19 list, ESPN.com’s Field Yates and NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero report (Twitter links). Three Titans players have tested positive for the virus, though it is not known if these are the three. Eight Titans players and staffers combined are believed to have tested positive. The five non-players who tested positive were all football-side staffers, Albert Breer of SI.com notes. This includes outside linebackers coach Shane Bowen, who received word of his positive test Saturday.
- While the Titans are closing their facility doors until Saturday, the Vikings will not practice until at least Thursday, Breer tweets. The NFL has suspended in-person activities for both teams until further notice. The Vikings are set to play the Texans on Sunday in Houston. Both Minnesota and Tennessee’s games are scheduled for noon CT.
- Family members of Titans and Vikings players and staffers will be tested as well, the league announced. No players and staffers were tested on Sunday, with the COVID-19 protocols stipulating tests occur daily but not on game days.
- Referee Clete Blakeman’s crew, which worked Sunday’s Titans-Vikings game, will not work a Week 4 contest, according to Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com (on Twitter). The crew will undergo daily testing this week.
dont be cheap. move the game to Monday and take whatever financial hit it takes.
Agreed. For a league that allegedly values player safety, this is the only viable solution (for now).
Titans Steelers is a more exciting game than Falcons Packers
For sure. They could even schedule the game for 5/530 est, a good 3 hours before the other game.
That would be the best idea I’ve heard. Move the game to an early evening start and your good to go. This will be the test to see if the NFL is really about player safety or not. Because if they Jack this up and more players/teams/staffers are lost due to Covid then the season could for real be in jeopardy, and with the Big 10 and other conferences starting back up soon, they’ll keep a close eye on this as well. Praying for a good outcome, cannot cope without football in this crappy 2020 year!
If more outbreaks in Titans staff/roster, then they should postpone or forfeit the game. Don’t want my Steelers catching covid.
idiot
Not good at all this happened already after Week 3. If 3 players tested positive already, there’s more than a 50% chance that at least double that amount will test positive over the next couple of days, if not more. Just look what happened with the Miami Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals and their sport does not require close, physical contact with one another at practice or during a game. The NFL is trying to play it cool but they have to be worried to death over this. One or two more breakouts across other teams and there will be talks about putting the season on hold. Let’s just all hope the positive test rates stay low, no one from Minnesota contracted it during the game and the league can continue along with its schedule. It would really suck to lose football too this year. Fingers crossed!
Does anyone have a spare hour to explain the tie breaking procedures if the season were to end today?