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The Broncos played a game without a quarter due to COVID-19 contact detection. The 49ers played a game after placing four key players, including three receivers, on the COVID-19 list a day before the kick-off. The Ravens missed a dozen entrees and key contributors, including NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, in 2019, despite their game against the Steelers being rescheduled three times. The Browns played Sunday’s game with only one receiver available in their 53-player roster.
The results of those games were predictable.
However, the NFL has consistently said that it would not reschedule competitive reasons for competitive reasons. It will follow the same approach in the post-season, and the NFLPA is stuck in planning decisions based solely on health and safety.
“I think it’s a very slippery slope to read decisions or to start motivating them by competitive balance,” NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said in a video conference Tuesday. ‘I think once you start making the decisions, it becomes very difficult to manage and also very difficult to determine when to stop.
“I think what you’ve seen for 16 weeks is the league and the union are working hard to make difficult decisions, but right decisions about the health and safety of players.”
The president of the NFLPA, JC Tretter, is the center of Browns, and he saw the results of the four best receivers of Browns as high-risk close contact of linebacker BJ Goodson, who delivered a positive test on Saturday morning .
The Browns lost 23-16 to the Jets on Sunday, which could eventually cost them a playoff spot. They put safety Harrison Bryant and Andrew Sendejo on the reserve COVID-19 list on Tuesday, with a big game against the Steelers ahead on Sunday.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” Tretter said. ‘Guys want to be there, and that was one of the harder things this year. Guys are competitors. Guys play through injuries, through illnesses, but this is the year it’s not possible. You can not play through COVID. It’s not safe for the guys around you, and the choice is from the player of [if] can you do it.
‘It’s a hard no, and it’s a hard no if you’re a close contact. And that’s why it’s so important to follow the protocols – wear your mask, wear your Kinexon [tracking device] and physically distancing at the facility. If you do these three things, chances are you will not catch the virus, and you will not end up on the high-risk contact list. Going by the protocols and adhering to 100 percent takes care of everything. ”
The NFL informed teams today that daily testing and intensive protocols will continue during the playoffs. The board and the NFL Players Association also agreed to unlimited increases in the practice group without a player having to clear the waiver during the post-season in 2020.
During the regular season, a team could only move a player to the active roster twice.
The NFL will not go for a neutral bubble or have mandatory local bubbles for the post-season, and trust the protocols to work.
‘I do not think there is a need for it [a bubble or bubbles], ”Smith said.
Few expected the NFL to play all 256 games in the regular season without a week 18 or without cancellations, but it’s five days to do so.
“We said from the beginning, it was not to get started,” Tretter said. “We felt confident that we could get to the point of getting started. It was to keep starting and continue the season and finish it off at the Super Bowl. We close it with the purpose. It will require everyone to keep up with protocols and do the right thing and comply 100 percent, but I give a ton of credit to every person who walks into that building every year. “