Minutes before Tuesday’s game between the Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys, wide receiver Dez Bryant was pulled from the field and tested for COVID-19, which came back positive.
The game went on, despite a player warming up and being around his teammates shortly before kickoff, which elicited reaction from fans and Bryant himself about whether or not that was the right call.
On a conference call Wednesday, NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allan Sills was asked directly about this, including that there were photos shown of Bryant interacting with individuals on the field before his tests came back.
“We took all of the data that we had in hand and made the safest possible decision,” Sills said, per ProFootballTalk. “All interactions are not created equal when it comes to risk. To have a high-risk close contact, there’s really a matrix of four-different variables which include cumulative exposure time, the distance, the ventilation available and the use of a mask. So you’re always looking for the interplay and the various weighing ot hose interactions.”
Sills added that the “brevity of the interactions and outdoor nature of it is certainly an important factory here.”
The timing of Bryant’s removal still raised questions about the NFL’s protocols, which commissioner Roger Goodell has previously said to be working. Bryant was the only Ravens player whose test from the morning did not return positive, bur rather inconclusive, which led him to be re-tested.
About 15 minutes after being tested again, Bryant discovered he was positive.
“The process is consistent with how we have addressed a player positive, including the contact-tracing process,” Dawn Apone, NFL chief football administrative officer, said, per PFT. “I would say one of the complicating factors, obviously, was the timing for the club. It was past the 90-minute mark, pregame, which is the final time that the club is able to set their active roster for the game. That was different than what we had experimented in the past.
“But in terms of the scenario, certainly not something that we hadn’t previously contemplated and discussed, and as always health and safety dictates. At the end of the day, that is how the decision is arrived, and that was how it was determined that Dez would be removed, and there were not other close contacts identified.”
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