Postponement and rescheduling of Patriots game is not a first for Chiefs. Check it out
Saturday’s pandemic-prompted postponement of the Chiefs’ Sunday showdown against the New England Patriots was jarring, but it’s not the first time the Kansas City NFL franchise has seen a regular season game rescheduled so close to game day.
Patriots quarterback Cam Newton and Chiefs reserve quarterback Ta’amu Jordan have each tested positive for COVID-19, and the NFL and the two teams are now seeking additional test results before announcing a new date for the game (it could take place Monday or Tuesday).
The unplanned rescheduling of games has occurred at last three other times in the organization’s history, though this is obviously the first time such a rescheduling has been caused by events related to a viral pandemic.
In 2005, the team was scheduled to meet the Miami Dolphins on Oct. 23 in Miami. But with Hurricane Wilma bearing down on the Florida coast, the game was hastily moved up to Oct. 21, a Friday evening.
The Chiefs missed a practice during the shortened week leading up to the game and caught a flight to Miami on game day. They landed six hours before kickoff and won the game 30-20 behind quarterback Trent Green’s 289 passing yards.
In 2001, the Chiefs were scheduled to play at the Seattle Seahawks in Week 2. But all NFL games were called off that weekend because of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Those games were rescheduled for the end of the regular season, and the duration between the conference championship games at Super Bowl was reduced from two weeks to one.
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963 also created confusion for football. The NFL played that Sunday, a decision Pete Rozelle later called his biggest regret as commissioner. The AFL decided to postpone its schedule for that weekend, including the Chiefs’ game at the New York Jets.
The Chiefs-Patriots game is the second one this weekend to be altered by positive COVID-19 tests. The Tennessee Titans’ game against the Pittsburgh Steelers has been postponed until Oct. 25 because of positive tests among Titans players and team personnel.
The count among the Titans was up to 16 as of Saturday afternoon — eight team personnel and eight players, including long-snapper Beau Brinkley, who attended and played at the University of Missouri and Kearney High.
This story was originally published October 3, 2020 at 1:24 PM.