CLEVELAND, Ohio – Browns coach Kevin Stefanski has said the team should pull together and try to beat the Steelers on Sunday night despite him and four others being suspended for COVID-19.
“We have to find a way,” Stefanski said.
He confronted the Steelers before a framed print of Jim Brown and said he was disappointed for everyone who could not be at the Wildcard game on Sunday night, including the Browns player in Joel Bitonio.
But he said the players are well prepared and will know what is expected of them. He will continue to do the message of their job and win the next game.
“The guys understand what I’m about, they understand what we’re about,” Stefanski said. “That will still be the message.”
He said the Browns had no new positive results today, but that they would keep the building locked and work remotely, including a virtual passage of 1 p.m. The NFL and its partners continue contact detection to make sure the building is safe from virus transmission before reopening.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin also said no one in the Steelers organization has been identified as a close contact after losing 24-22 to the Browns on Sunday. He and Stefanski, who worked together in Minnesota, had a brief encounter on the field.
Stefanski admits that offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt will name the plays, and that he has been a big part of the game planning throughout the season.
“He knows the things we believe in,” he said. “He knows how we play.”
Stefanski admits that it is frustrating for the team to find themselves in a COVID-19 situation because “we tried to go further and do it.”
He said he and his family are doing well, and he’s mostly worried about everyone. He deviated most of the questions from his own situation, which is consistent with his behavior throughout the season. He has been asymptomatic so far and looked good with the Zoom call.
He said he chose Mike Priefer as interim coach because as a special team coordinator he is involved with so many players and aspects of the game. He noted that he “did a great job” when he went to Mike Zimmer in a 17-15 loss to the Cowboys in 2016 when Zimmer underwent eye surgery.
He insisted that the team ‘is not in my image’ and that it would be fine without him on Sunday in the club’s first play-off match in 18 years.
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