The National Football League is facing a season plagued with multiple game cancellations due to changes in its COVID-19 protocols and policies for testing players.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced in July that games would be forfeited, not postponed, due to a COVID-19 outbreak. The forfeit would go to the team with the outbreak. During the 2020 season, outbreaks caused 10 games to be rescheduled.
Perhaps the more consequential change was to the league’s testing policy.
During the 2020 season, all players had to be tested daily. For 2021, the NFL and the NFL Players Association agreed that only unvaccinated players would be tested daily. Vaccinated players would be tested once every 14 days.
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The policy change was intended to incentivize players to get vaccinated. It has proven relatively successful, with 93% of players either fully or partially vaccinated, according to the NFL.
However, the change occurred before the rise of the far more infectious delta variant that has resulted in numerous breakthrough infections in vaccinated people
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On Thursday, Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who has been vaccinated, tested positive for the virus. He has been placed on the Titans’ reserve/COVID-19 reserve list and can’t come off it until he tests negative twice in 24 hours.
Six other Titans players have tested positive recently, including Justin March-Lillard, Geoff Swaim, Jeremy McNichols, Anthony Rush, Harold Landry, and Nick Dzubnar. Running back March-Lillard and tight end Swaim could miss this Sunday’s preseason game. Additionally, head coach Mike Vrabel and special teams coordinator Craig Aukerman have also tested positive.
The Titans are not the first team to experience a COVID-19 outbreak. The Players Association revealed that the Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins had outbreaks during the first week of training camp. Last year, when daily testing was in place, the first outbreak didn’t occur until the third week of the preseason.
Without increased testing, Dr. Manoj Jain, an infectious disease physician at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, is certain that the NFL will be facing many forfeits this season.
“I think the NFL has underestimated the delta variant,” Jain said. “From patients I see now in my clinic and hospitals, I learn that their entire family is positive with the delta variant. If the patient was at a gathering, nearly everyone at the gathering is positive.”
The Players Association is pushing to have every player, including those who are vaccinated, tested daily. The NFL wants to require vaccinated players to be tested every seven days instead of every 14.
Increased testing could prove effective in preventing players from spreading the virus.
“The NFL should go back to what they did last year with testing,” said Jain. “There is no doubt in my mind that the risk of players getting COVID-19 because of delta is very high. They are in a high-risk activity. … They are in a setting on the field where they are in close contact, where they cannot mask and they cannot socially distance.”
The testing protocol isn’t the only thing that could leave NFL teams vulnerable to outbreaks. Players seem increasingly willing to violate other COVID-19 rules.
Buffalo Bills wide receivers Isaiah McKenzie and Cole Beasley were both fined by the NFL on Thursday. McKenzie was fined $14,650 for not wearing a mask multiple times in the team facility. Beasley was also fined for not wearing his mask, but he did not disclose the amount. About 81% of Bills players are vaccinated.
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According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the NFL has fined at least 25 players this preseason for violating COVID-19 protocols.
