- The NFL has postponed the Tennessee Titans/Pittsburgh Steelers game due to the Titans’ positive coronavirus tests.
- The Tennessee Titans closed team facilities after three players and five personnel members tested positive for coronavirus.
- The rescheduled game will be played Monday or Tuesday according to the NFL.
After assurances from the NFL that they intended to play Sunday’s Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Tennessee Titans game as scheduled the league has reversed course and postponed the matchup. There’s no official date yet for the makeup game though the league indicated that the game is ‘expected’ to be played either Monday or Tuesday. Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin indicated that there is a ‘strong possibility’ it will be played on Monday though there’s been no official confirmation.
Here’s the official announcement from the NFL:
On Tuesday, the Titans put a stop to in-person workouts and closed team facilities after learning that three players and five personnel members had tested positive for the coronavirus. At that point, they began working with the league office to coordinate their response. In addition, the Titans opponent from the previous Sunday–the Minnesota Vikings– also closed facilities and suspended team activities ‘out of an abundance of caution’. The Vikings’ tests all came back negative and they are preparing to reopen the team’s facilities on Thursday. Pending any further developments, their game against the Houston Texans will proceed as planned.
The total number of Titans’ players testing positive is now being quoted as four. They are starting nose tackle DaQuan Jones, long-snapper Beau Brinkley and practice squad tight end Tommy Hudson along with five team personnel members this week. Titans’ head coach Mike Vrabel indcated that some of the players who tested positive were experiencing ‘flu like symptoms’ though he reassured fans that the team and league has the situation under control:
“I know there’s going to be a lot of questions about the game and about who’s to blame and where it started. Nobody’s to blame. We’re in a pandemic. This is a very unfortunate situation, but one that we’re confident that we will be able to handle safely with the football team and the players’ best interests in mind.”
The way that the league has announced the postponement also took care of the situation with pending bets. Since no make up date was ‘officially’ announced at the time of the cancellation most books graded the game ‘no action’. The Don Best feed announcement indicated that the games would ‘most likely’ be played Monday or Tuesday but the important thing is that the date was still ‘TBA’ at the time of the cancellation:
Had the rescheduled date been announced at the same time the cancellation was made the house rules at individual sportsbooks would have governed what became of existing bets. Many books would have let them stand as the game would be played within a week of the originally scheduled date at the same venue.
