Titans, Vikings Experience NFL’s First Coronavirus Outbreak

The Titans’ outbreak reflects how a bundle of positive tests can jeopardize the viability of a season, as has happened in other professional leagues, though the N.F.L. did not say whether the affected teams’ Week 4 games — Tennessee hosts Pittsburgh, while Minnesota plays at Houston — will proceed as scheduled. That determination will be reached by Commissioner Roger Goodell in consultation with an eight-member group comprising coaches, executives and former players from various team affiliations that was established to prevent members of the league’s competition committee from making self-interested decisions on which teams might have to cancel or postpone games.

With the Titans’ and Vikings’ schedules in flux, the N.F.L. is now confronting the same issues that plagued Major League Baseball, another professional sports league that did not construct a so-called bubble environment for its teams in order to contest its regular season.

Throughout a tumultuous off-season, as transmission rates soared, team facilities closed and training camp protocols were revamped, the N.F.L. pledged that the pandemic would not prevent the season from starting on time, on Sept. 10 — and it did.

The N.F.L. had low positive rates throughout training camp in early August, when daily testing affirmed the teams’ obedience to protocols. Even as the league and its players’ union agreed to continue to test players every day, except for game days, the real challenge for the league came down to maintaining that same level of vigilance once the season started, when teams began traveling and the potential exposure increased.

The first three weeks of the season unfolded largely without incident, with only one player, Falcons cornerback A.J. Terrell, missing a game, last Sunday against Chicago, after being placed on the reserve/Covid-19 list. In the latest round of testing released by the league, which ran from Sept. 13 to 19, only five positive cases — none among players — emerged from nearly 37,000 tests given to 7,845 players and team personnel.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/sports/football/nfl-titans-vikings-coronavirus.html