“I think that the N.F.L. players and the coaches have to be professional and know that they don’t want to be putting other people at risk,” Adalja said. “They shouldn’t be playing sick, but that’s obviously going to be as good as the honesty of the people there.”
The players union has pushed for daily testing for all players, as the league required in 2020, with N.F.L.P.A. president J.C. Tretter writing in a September 2021 post to the union’s website that merely testing vaccinated players weekly could allow virus transmission inside team facilities for a dangerously long window.
Goodell’s memo Saturday came on the heels of a bevy of Covid-19 protocol changes the N.F.L. made in a week in which it was forced to postpone three of this weekend’s games, the first such delays this season.
Facing a single-day high in players’ positive tests Monday, the league mandated booster shots for team staff members who work most closely with players. On Thursday, after more than 100 players tested positive over the week, the league reinstituted mandatory mask-wearing inside team facilities and restrictions on in-person gatherings. More than 130 players were placed on N.F.L. teams’ Covid-19/reserve lists this week, including at least 10 from the Los Angeles Rams, Cleveland Browns and Washington Football Team.
The Coronavirus Pandemic: Latest Updates
- Elizabeth Warren tests positive for the coronavirus.
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With the spike in positive cases threatening the weekend’s slate of games, the N.F.L. also changed its policies to allow options for fully vaccinated players who tested positive to become active more quickly, provided they are asymptomatic for at least 24 hours. Now those players may return from quarantine as soon as the day after their initial positive test.
On Saturday, the N.H.L. announced strengthened protocols that include daily testing for all members of a club’s traveling party. Players and coaches are prohibited from eating indoors at restaurants and bars, and are encouraged to wear masks indoors.
A joint statement from the league and the N.H.L.P.A. released Sunday said that after meetings with medical experts, the season would continue amid the postponements; so far 39 games will be rescheduled. The need to temporarily shut down individual teams would continue to be made on a case-by-case basis.