11:30am: The NFL is moving tomorrow’s Colts-Bears game to 4:25 p.m. ET to fill the previous Patriots-Chiefs spot, per NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo (via Twitter).
11:07am: That didn’t take long. Less than an hour after news broke of Cam Newton testing positive for COVID-19, we’re now learning (via ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Twitter) that tomorrow’s game between the Patriots and Chiefs has been postponed. Schefter notes that the game is expected to be played Monday or Tuesday.
“The New England-Kansas City game scheduled for 4:25 p.m. ET Sunday will be rescheduled to Monday or Tuesday after positive COVID-19 tests on both teams,” the league said in a statement.
“In consultations with infectious disease experts, both clubs are working closely with the NFL and the NFLPA to evaluate multiple close contacts, perform additional testing and monitor developments. All decisions will be made with the health and safety of players, team and gameday personnel as our primary consideration.”
As the statement alludes to, Newton wasn’t the only player to test positive. NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports (via Twitter) that Chiefs practice squad quarterback Jordan Ta’amu has also tested positive and has been added to the reserve list. Along with practice squad QB Matt Moore, Ta’amu was the de facto third-string quarterback behind Patrick Mahomes and Chad Henne.
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com is skeptical the game will be played Monday considering the incubation period. Schefter somewhat echoes that sentiment, as a source told him that the game is “more likely” to be played on Tuesday.
Earlier this week, the NFL postponed Sunday’s contest between the Titans and Steelers after several members of the Titans organization tested positive for COVID-19. That number has since ballooned to 16, forcing the NFL to postpone the game indefinitely.
PS QB on Chiefs too. This game is not playing this week.
Ta’amu was really taking that “simulate Cam Newton” thing a little too seriously.
Move it to their bye week, like you did with the Steelers.
That’s what I thought too, use the damn bye week..
Side note: Always seemed like they should have 2 bye weeks in an NFL season anyway, why not change to that model next season (regardless of Covid being a thing next year or not)? This year it would have come in handy for rescheduling purposes / years previously it would have helped teams recuperate so they play their best ball (if they add to the existing 16 game schedule and eliminate a couple of preseason games I still think they need a 2nd bye week).
Why not? Players cry and whine about the schedule now; give them 2 mini breaks in a season and add 2 regular season games while getting rid of 2 preseason games you’d average a break every 9 weeks/2 months – sounds reasonable to me.
Steelers and Titans have different bye weeks so that’s not what they did. Chiefs and Patriots don’t have same bye week either.
They did use the bye weeks… and moved the balt pitts game to balt bye week and gave balt a bye week a week earlier. Things can be moved around.
Hold on to your butts. Rollercoaster has reached the drop.
Very appropriate metaphor!
this was inevitable
Here comes the beginning to the end……
Nope. Heard same thing with baseball and it didn’t happen.
Baseball went through this early in their season as well. I think having a few games cancelled added urgency for the organizations and players to take the guidelines more seriously. There was a time in July/August where it looked like there was no way the short MLB season would finish, but here we are.
sidewinder11 Exactly. Outside of a true bubble atmosphere like the NBA has used, it’s pretty obvious there’s gonna be some positive tests and postponed games. The season won’t go perfectly, but it won’t be called off either.
Still, there are some major differences to consider. First, football has many more people involved per game and, of course, a lot more contact between participants. Second, football teams can’t play makeup doubleheaders to try and even out missed games. The fact that football plays essentially one game a week works both for and against them – fewer games makes for fewer exposures, but each postponed or cancelled game is a much larger percentage of the season.
Like everybody, I suppose, I have no idea how all this will wind up. I do think the potential for a season-ending amount of positives is quite possible.
There hasn’t been any on field transmission in either sport to this point. The transmission is happening when you have extended time in close proximity…like facilities
How could you possibly know this
Not difficult. No player from a team that played one with infected players has had a resulting positive. Sample was mostly baseball with the Vikings being the test case in football. It may change but it’s true
Also, the rush to cram everything in was entirely an artificial timeline. MLB wanted to avoid conflicts with NFL and be as close to normal “October Playoff Baseball” as possible. They could easily have extended the season which is exactly what NFL should be open to doing.
The rescheduling isn’t going to cause a problem since nobody was expecting a Royals/Redsox playoff game.