NFL, NFLPA update COVID protocols. What it means for KC Chiefs players on COVID list
The NFL has managed to complete 14 weeks without a COVID-19 interruption or rescheduled game, but they’re teetering on the edge now, with more than 100 players placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list this week alone.
That includes three Chiefs — defensive lineman Chris Jones, linebacker Willie Gay and wide receiver Josh Gordon — who won’t play Thursday night in Los Angeles.
The NFL and the NFL Players Association are responding in kind. They notified teams Thursday of increased safety protocols, particularly stringent through the conclusion of Week 15, some of which revert back to the measures that helped them complete the 2020 season and ensuing postseason.
The league noted the most prominent rules in a statement Thursday, which includes mask mandates and restrictions on in-person gatherings:
”Throughout the pandemic we have continuously evolved our protocols to meet our goal of advancing the safety of the players, coaches and staff. The changes we are making today aim to address the increase in cases and the advent of the Omicron variant,” the NFL-released statement read, before outlining some of the measures. “Effective immediately, all clubs will implement preventative measures that have proven effective: masking regardless of vaccination status, remote or outdoor meetings, eliminating in-person meals, and no outside visitors while on team travel.
“We will continue to strongly encourage booster shots as the most effective protection. Finally, and based on expert advice, we will adjust the return-to-participation requirements for those who have recovered from COVID-19. All of these changes are grounded in our data and science-backed approach, with safety our number-one goal for the entire NFL community.”
The memo further details a potentially expedited process for vaccinated players to return to the field after testing positive, if they are asymptomatic. It’s a bit of a complicated system, and it’s noteworthy that the three Chiefs players on the list — Jones, Gordon and Gay — won’t be affected. They are still sitting out Thursday, as is Chargers starting left tackle Rashawn Slater.
But under the new system, any fully vaccinated individuals who test positive will be tested daily afterward, and they can be released from their league-mandated quarantine if they are asymptomatic for at least 24 hours and meet other criteria that includes the measure of their “cycle threshold” (CT). In a call with media Thursday, NFL chief medical offer Allen Sills said the CT value can determine whether someone is still contagious.
That testing can begin the day after a positive test.
“It’s not about loosing our standards,” Sills said on a call with media Thursday, as transcribed by ESPN. “If anything, we’re just bringing a higher degree of precision in measuring ourselves against a more precise rule.”
The memo further detailed some changes, such as a maximum number of people in the weight room. The regular meeting formats must be altered, at least for now, in terms of the in-person setting. Gatherings may be held outdoors or with players and staff members socially distanced in each team’s practice bubble.