Lee Ann Herring-Olvedo MESPORTS SOUTH
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NASHVILLE,TN– Three weeks into the NFL season and the Tennesse Titans are the first official ball club forced to shut down their facilities after three players and five personnel tested positive for COVID-19 following their 31-30 win over the Vikings on Sunday. Along with the Titans, the Vikings will suspend all in-person team activities starting Tuesday. While none of the Vikings team members or personnel have tested positive the team is taking precautionary measures after hosting Tennesse in Week 3.
The NFL released the following statement, “All decisions will be made with health and safety as our primary consideration. We will continue to share updates as more information becomes available. Both clubs are working closely with the NFL and the NFLPA, including our infectious disease experts, to evaluate close contacts, perform additional testing, and monitor developments.”
Up until now, the NFL has been able to keep a tight ship amongst all its teams in containing COVID-19. In the weekly release of the leagues testing data there in fact were zero positive tests for players prior to the Tuesday shutdown announcement. In the previous week, the league only had two confirmed positives. The most recent confirmed case was Atlanta’s CB, A.J. Terrell. However, in Terrell’s case, he had not spread COVID-19 to any players or personnel during the Week 3 game against the Bears and remained inactive on Sunday.
While these are the moments we tend to fear as it could result in more shutdowns and another halt. The reality is that sooner or later as long as we are the midst of a pandemic even taking all the proper precautions and heightened measures this is still something that is inevitable until things are able to get under control. But it’s better to catch this and nip it in the bud and use it as a learning tool to make sure that teams can continue to play this game in a safe and healthy environment.