If we have learned one thing during this whole pandemic mess, it’s that anything can happen in the NFL.
Twice this season, the Steelers have watched their bye week and a “mini bye week” dissolve into hardly any time off since the start of Training Camp.
Once again, COVID has threatened another Steelers game, but this time it’s different, it’s a playoff game.
This time it’s the Cleveland Browns, who announced on Tuesday that their head coach along with two other coaches and two players tested positive for COVID-19 and are out for this Sunday night’s game.
Head Coach Kevin Stefanski will be able to work with the team remotely this week but will be unable to be on the sidelines. Special Team’s Coordinator Mike Priefer will serve as the acting head coach.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said on Tuesday that they have a backup plan if he was to test positive but did not reveal who would take over in his place.
One of those players is offensive lineman Joel Bitonio, arguably Cleveland’s best O-lineman.
But even as cases of COVID rise in the Browns organization, at this point it seems very unlikely that the game would be postponed.
Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson reports that a source in the Browns organization tells him that the game will not be postponed unless positive cases continue late into the week, which is a possibility.
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero says that the NFL’s medical experts believe the cases the Browns saw last week were from community spread and not an outbreak at the team’s facility.
What that means is the NFL will continue with the game as planned, at least for now.
The NFL and NFLPA have said that games will only be rescheduled for health reasons and not competitive reasons, and that plan is expected to be followed in the playoffs. Simply put, if cases are not being widely transferred in a facility, and the team has enough players to take the field on game day, it should go on without a postponement.
But with the Steelers/Ravens game being postponed three times before finally being played, it’s hard to tell what exactly the league will ultimately do.
The Browns reported no new cases on Sunday or Monday.
While contract tracing and genomic sequencing continue, it is expected the Brown’s practice facility will once again be closed on Wednesday after being closed Tuesday.
Another wrinkle in the situation involved close contact tracing and even though Steelers coach Mike Tomlin and Stefanski were seen talking before the game and had a quick hug after, Tomlin is reportedly in the clear after tracing was conducted.
Pelissero says that the “League’s medical experts factor in many variables, including mask use, duration, proximity, ventilation.”
Related
