The past 72 or so hours have been very unusual for the Patriots.
Saturday morning the players learned that Cam Newton had tested positive for COVID-19 and instead of traveling to Kansas City, players were tested and sent home. Soon after Sunday's game was postponed, then there were more tests Sunday and following negative results, the game was rescheduled for Monday.
Monday morning the team arrived early at Gillette Stadium and departed for Kansas City in two planes, which is almost unheard of to travel the day of a game. The team went to a hotel for a few hours before heading over to the stadium, playing the game and then traveling back home afterwards.
While the day seemed to go smooth, the game didn't as the Patriots fell, 26-10.
Speaking afterwards, captains Matthew Slater and Devin McCourty gave their accounts of the last three days.
Slater: “Obviously this is something that none of us have experienced before. A unique situation. I will say this, first and foremost we are praying for Cam and his health and hope that he is doing well. I would also like to thank the BioReference lab folks, the trailer, John and his folks, Andrew, Melanie, all those folks. We really appreciate all the work that they have done to help us navigate this process. It’s been unique. I think a lot of us just wanted to make sure that we were healthy and that we weren’t passing anything on to our families. That was the primary concern for a lot of guys. Thankfully, everyone has continued to be healthy through the testing and hopefully it stays that way. We tried to make the most of the circumstances that we were dealt today. I am proud of the way the guys came out and competed. We just have to be better.”
“... But, again, I do not want to use that as an excuse at all. We just didn’t make enough plays today. It was a tough outing for us.”
McCourty: “Honestly, there’s not much to say on that. I would say it gave me great perspective just what everyone in our country was going through. I think about people that don’t have the resources and everything that we had over those last three days of testing -- this test, that test, multiple tests. So many people in different communities just didn’t have that and as nerve-wracking and everything that was going on, I think we still had a sense of security that a lot of people didn’t have. We had a peace of mind going on with all the contact testing, all of that stuff. Obviously, it wasn’t perfect, but we had a lot more peace of mind [than] the last couple of months that people did just leaving their houses or buildings to just walk in the hallway or street.”