The NFL is facing its first real pandemic-related challenge of the 2020 regular season after a series of positive Coronavirus tests have forced the Tennessee Titans to close their facility: three players and five staff members were tested positive between Monday and Tuesday, with one each joining them on Wednesday. As a result of the outbreak, the league has now decided to alter its schedule for this week.
Instead of playing on Sunday at 1 pm, the NFL has announced that the Titans’ game against the Pittsburgh Steelers will be postponed:
The Steelers-Titans game, originally scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. ET, will be rescheduled to allow additional time for further daily COVID-19 testing and to ensure the health and safety of players, coaches and game day personnel. Details on the new game date and time on either Monday or Tuesday will be announced as soon as possible.
The Titans are the first team since the start of the regular season earlier this month to have a comparatively wide-spread outbreak of Covid-19 cases. The Minnesota Vikings, who played the team in Week 3, meanwhile, have not had any positive tests.
As for the New England Patriots, they have not yet had any positive Coronavirus cases and remain one of just three teams — the others being the Houston Texans and the Los Angeles Chargers — to not send a player to NFL’s new Reserve/Covid-19 list since it was introduced earlier this year.