- Early Sunday morning brought news of new positive COVID-19 tests in New England
- Monday’s scheduled game between the Patriots and Broncos has been postponed.
- The expectation is that it will be played in Week 6.
Just when it looked as if the NFL might get all of their games in this week the COVID-19 situation for a couple of teams took a turn for the worst. More specifically, positive tests in New England and Tennessee caused both teams to take a step back in their virus mitigation efforts. The most immediate impact is the postponement of Monday night’s game between the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots.
The report came in the early hours of Sunday morning that the league had made the decision to postpone the Patriots’ game against the Broncos for the second time. It was originally scheduled for Sunday’s card but moved to Monday due to the Patriots’ COVID-19 situation. The Tennessee Titans’ game against the Buffalo Bills is still scheduled at the time this article was written.
CBS Sports NFL reporter Jason La Canfora first reported the positive tests on Twitter. As of now, there’s not much detail known beyond this due to the league’s medical privacy mandate:
The most recent news is that the postponed Pats/Broncos game has been moved to next Sunday, October 18. The league is still trying to work out the other moving parts of the postponement but it appears as the Broncos will play the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 8. The Broncos originally had a bye in Week 8. The Miami Dolphins were supposed to play the Broncos next week but that game will likely move to Week 11. Week 11 was originally scheduled to be a bye week for Miami. A decision about Tuesday’s game between the Titans and Bills is expected at some point this afternoon.
Even with the two positive tests on Sunday, the NFL looks to have the COVID-19 situation under some degree of control. It was known that there would be positive tests and to date the league has done a solid job dealing with them and quickly assessing the ‘macro’ of the situation.
