The Baltimore Ravens are reportedly being punished for their recent COVID-19 outbreak, but not as harshly as other teams.
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the NFL fines the Ravens $ 250,000 for their end-of-November COVID-19 outbreak, but they are not deprived of a draft pick. The Ravens are the fifth team to be disciplined for protocol violations and team outbursts, and this is the smallest penalty so far. The New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans were fined $ 350,000, while the Las Vegas Raiders and New Orleans Saints were fined $ 500,000 and deprived of a draft pick.
The outbreak of the Ravens was quite significant. At least four separate strains of COVID-19 were found in the team facility, which resulted in 23 players – including QB Lamar Jackson – being placed on the COVID-19 list over a ten-day period. The Ravens’ game against the Pittsburgh Steelers had to be postponed three times, and their game against the Dallas Cowboys was postponed twice.
It’s not clear why the Ravens get a lesser penalty than the other teams. Given the number of players affected by the Ravens outbreak and how many times the game had to be rescheduled, you would think it would be at least as many as the Pats and Titans, and maybe even up to the level of the Raiders and Saints .
However, the NFL could have punished the Ravens less because they had already punished their own staff for the outbreak. The Ravens reportedly suspended strength coach Steve Saunders because he did not report his symptoms and did not always wear a mask and his contact detection device.
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