The NFL is dealing with its first COVID-19 outbreak, as the Titans have a total of eight positive cases, including three players and five team staffers.
In-person team activities have been shut down until likely Saturday and their game Sunday against the Steelers has been postponed until Monday or Tuesday.
Speaking via video conference Wednesday, Patriots captain Devin McCourty said while it’s shocking, it’s not all that surprising.
"I think throughout the whole NFL, there's a high awareness for everything that goes on week in and week out,” he said. “You know, you look at a team like Minnesota, they just played Tennessee. Pittsburgh, they're about to play Tennessee. So like all of this stuff comes up, I mean, even, you know, leaving our game Sunday and in Vegas, you see a ton of articles talking about them out at an event without masks.
“I just think across the whole league, we talked about this when training camp started. It's up to us. It's up to all the players. It's up to all the coaching staff, the staff members and around the organization. That if we want to keep football alive we're all responsible and try to do the right things. But at the end of the day, we are in a pandemic. So what happened in Tennessee, although it kind of shocks us, it's not really surprising. I think we all knew at some point we might get some positive tests.
“But, you know, it's hard once you get a rolling and no positive tests Week 1. No positive tests Week 2. So it's like, we got this. I think this is just a little shocker, but it's also a wakeup call, like hey, the virus is still here and it will affect any and everybody. It doesn't care that we're trying to play football.”
Wide receiver Damiere Byrd said even though things have gone extremely well so far, the league and the Patriots cannot get complacent.
“It’s scary, just how fast things like that can happen, when you get settled into a routine and you’re reminded that COVID’s still out there and it’s still very contagious,” he said. “I think for us, we’ve just got to continue doing what we’ve been doing. Stay mindful of when we leave the building, of what we’re doing. Obviously we’re going to continue to test, just do the right thing and keep out of the way.”
Speaking earlier in the day, Bill Belichick said it’s a good reminder of what kind of situation the league is in.
“We try to monitor it the best we can and we I think are pretty vigilant with really all of us, it’s not any one person, but just all of us keeping an eye on things that if anybody sees something that’s not the way we talked about it or maybe something’s a little off or that we need to take a better look at, then we do that,” he said. “So, we’ve had that situation come up multiple times as things have changed, as we went through the different phases of training camp, as we got into the regular season schedule, then we traveling and so there have been a variety of changes in our scheduling or in the way we’re located or where or how we’re doing things that have necessitated some type of modification or adjustment.
“So, we continue to monitor and do that, but yeah, it’s obviously a good reminder for all of us of the situation that we’re in. Regardless of what we have or haven’t done up to this point, it really is about what we do each day going forward, making the right decisions and controlling what we can control. So, we’ll try to continue to do that.”
The Patriots will go on their second road trip of the year this weekend when they travel to Kansas City.
