On Thursday morning, Patriots coach Bill Belichick spoke for the first time since two more players -- Stephon Gilmore and Bill Murray -- have been added to the COVID list.
The Patriots closed their facility Wednesday and Thursday, but are still working remotely as they prepare to host the Broncos on Sunday, which is still on as scheduled.
“We made the decision to close the facility for the health and safety of our team," Belichick said on a conference call. "That is always priority No. 1. We have continued our preparations for Denver with virtual calls and we just take situations day-by-day. When we feel that it’s safe for everyone to come back, we’ll do that. I am sure you have a lot of questions. I have a lot of questions. We all have questions. This is really more of a medical situation than a football situation so we’ll work through the decisions and input from the people in the medical field — a combination of Patriots and league.
"People that know this know the situation, know the virus and the circumstances that are involved here both in the past and moving forward. Not really something that I am going to be able to give much insight on. We have a lot of questions on our end. For right now, yesterday and today, for right now, we’re closed and we’re going to work virtually to prepare for Denver and take it day-by-day.”
Belichick was asked about returning to the facility Friday and potentially playing Sunday and he said he's leaving it up to the medical people.
“Again, we’re relying on the doctors and the people in that field to take everything under advisement and I would say they have a big role in making those decisions," he said. "Really, these aren’t football decisions. These are medical decisions. In terms of medical decisions, those fall to medical people. Football decisions all to football people. We’ll see how it goes. Where we are today, I don’t think we can really plan too far ahead talking about Saturday, Sunday, a bunch of other days. There’s a lot than can and can’t happen in the meantime.
"As things change and if there are positive or potentially negative developments then we’ll look at those and I would say the medical department has kept me abreast of everything and I have certainly learned a lot and tried to understand how this fits into what we’re trying to do as a football team and what the medical needs and concerns are and just trying to balance all that out. It’s really no balance, it’s the health and safety of the team first, and then it’s football second. For yesterday and today we’re not in the building and we’ll take it day-by-day.”
It's unclear when the league will need to make a decision on Sunday's game, but one would have to imagine it would need to be over the next 24 hours.
