Chiefs confident in their COVID-19 protocols as one NFL game is impacted by infections
The Chiefs are in full preparation mode for their Week 4 matchup Sunday against the New England Patriots at Arrowhead Stadium.
Football is indeed back, but recent events in Tennessee and Minnesota served as a reminder the game goes on during a COVID-19 pandemic.
The NFL will reschedule the Titans’ next game, against the Steelers, to Monday or Tuesday after Tennessee reported several positive COVID-19 tests following a Week 3 game against Minnesota. The Vikings have not reported any positive tests and are rescheduled to reopen their training facility Thursday after a temporary closing.
As for the Chiefs, a potential teaching moment arrived to reinforce their own safety protocols because the disease remains a threat.
“(Titans head coach Mike) Vrabel runs a good program there and it’s a pandemic, so things can happen and he’s working through those now,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Wednesday. “But you’ve got to take as many precautionary measures as you can and try to stick with them, and if something happens like that, then you’ve got to work through that.
“We’ve all been coached up on it, and we’re all trying to do the best we possibly can with it.”
The Chiefs have yet to report a positive COVID-19 test through three weeks of regular-season action.
Rick Burkholder, the team’s vice president of sports medicine and performance, serves as the team’s infectious control officer and provided oversight on numerous protocols put in place at the team’s training facility. Burkholder was also a member of the NFL’s workgroup during the offseason to address player acclimation during the pandemic.
Additionally, Chiefs’ equipment manager Allen Wright during the offseason served as a member of an NFL workgroup focused on sanitizing equipment and gear.
Knowing who has helped put safety measures in place, the Chiefs feel comfortable at their workplace and will continue looking out for each other during the uncertain times.
“I feel like Rick and his staff and the whole organization have done a great job of keeping us socially distant, making us wear masks — even when people try to slip and not wear them — making sure that they’re wearing masks and we hold each other accountable,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said Wednesday. “Then you kind of accept what happens.
“I’m just going to make sure that we keep emphasizing that. Make sure that we continue to wear our masks, socially distance and try to prepare ourselves so that we’re not harming anyone else or ourselves.”
COVID-19 has claimed more than 200,000 lives in the U.S. alone, according to the John Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Research Center.
This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 4:54 PM.
