The Titans’ Week 4 COVID-19 problem could soon become a Week 5 problem and has the NFL investigating how it all went awry.
As the Titans’ coronavirus outbreak grew to 18 on Sunday — with an additional player and staff member testing positive, according to multiple reports — the league and its players association are in Nashville looking into whether the team violated protocols, ESPN reported.
“This isn’t a failure of the protocols; it is a failure to follow the protocols,” a source told ESPN.
Officials could be looking to “make an example” out of the Titans, according to the report, after asking them to turn over video of team activities to see how the virus may have spread. But the organization believes it has complied with the protocols, ESPN reported, perhaps even better than some other teams in the league.
But to date, the Titans have the NFL’s only outbreak. The Falcons had one player test positive before their game last weekend but have had no other cases. Patriots quarterback Cam Newton tested positive, leading to a postponement of Sunday’s Patriots-Chiefs game, but the rest of the team returned negative tests on both Saturday and Sunday, ESPN reported.
The Titans’ first positive case came last week with outside linebackers coach Shane Bowen. The list began to grow on Tuesday with players and other staff members testing positive, leading to the NFL postponing their Sunday game against the Steelers.
Now, with a steady trickle of positive cases continuing to come in, their facility will be closed until at least Wednesday, per ESPN, and any more could put their Week 5 game against the Bills in danger.
