Hub Arkush: As COVID-19 cases surge throughout US, NFL unable to avoid same fate

One can argue the NFL has won as many or more battles against COVID-19 as any multibillion-dollar enterprise in the world.

So why does it feel like the pandemic is winning the war?

While most of us were locked down and separated from loved ones for almost all of 2020, the NFL played a full schedule of 256 games, 12 playoff games and a Super Bowl – albeit in mostly empty stadiums – with limited interruptions and dramatically fewer Covid cases or serious illness than the general population along with zero deaths.

It seemed near miraculous based on what most of us experienced.

With the arrival of vaccines and a lessening of the sinister virus’ grip on us all, owners and players negotiated new, somewhat relaxed protocols for 2021 and allowed packed stadiums again. Until last week, the season came off without a significant hitch.

That was until the evil demon returned with a vengeance.

After reporting just 110 positive player tests from Labor Day until Nov. 27, more than 100 players have tested positive this week including serious outbreaks in Washington D.C., Cleveland, Los Angeles (Rams) and right here at home in Chicago.

As Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank said earlier this week, “At some point, you feel like you are fighting a ghost. You don’t know where to swing.”

But after ongoing negotiations this week, the owners and players via the NFLPA have swung back announcing several enhanced mandatory protocols including players on road trips will remain in the team hotel and are no longer able to entertain visitors and gatherings of three or more members of an organization outside the team facilities at home have been prohibited.

Additionally, in-person meetings will not be allowed unless they are held outside or in practice bubbles large enough to allow for distancing between participants. All players, whether they are vaccinated or not, must wear masks when indoors at team facilities, and food service in team facilities will shift to a grab-and-go model with no groups of players or staff allowed to dine together.

But is it too little too late?

This summer the NFL announced that unlike last season games wouldn’t be moved or postponed due to competitive reasons, like a team losing multiple players at a position group, but it did leave open the possibility if there were medical considerations.

That shoe dropped Friday with the announcement the Browns-Raiders game scheduled for Saturday would move to Monday and the Washington-Philadelphia and Seattle-L.A. Rams games have been rescheduled from Sunday to Tuesday evening.

The league insists it was done for medical reasons but now discontent is spreading among players with Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield extremely vocal about the need to postpone games to protect players’ health and competitive fairness, but one of his opponents this week, Raiders linebacker K.J. Wright, tweeted “I pay my player dues just to get lied to and the rules bent! If it was the other way around I swear we would be playing tomorrow.”

It is not irrelevant that Browns center J.C. Tretter is the current president of the NFLPA.

Closer to home, the Bears were rocked with all three coordinators, Bill Lazor, Sean Desai and Chris Tabor, as well as eight more players, including Allen Robinson and Eddie Jackson testing positive this week. And speaking with Lazor on Friday morning, arguably the most pleasant, easy-going, thoughtful and well-spoken coach I’ve ever worked with, his disappointment was obvious.

[ Bears formulate contingency plans if their coordinators are out Monday ]

“I’ve gotten my booster shot, which I believe in the science (to) get protected,” Lazor said. “I know I’ve been exposed to it before because I’ve been a close contact in the past. And obviously my body’s resisted getting infected by it.

“I think I’ve done what I can do. I won’t say I’m perfect. I think I do a pretty good job following the rules, wearing a mask. I just think we’re going to have to take all the information in and do our best with it. ... I probably sound bad right now.”

When I suggested he sounded more frustrated than bad he said, “I am. “I’d say it’s frustrating, but there’s not much I can do about it.”

All we know for sure right now is much like the general population the majority of these players testing positive are unvaccinated. Almost all who are vaccinated are either asymptomatic or showing no signs of serious illness, and with Christmas now just a week away, this is absolutely not what the owners, coaches or players hoped to find underneath their trees.

I’d hope the one thing we can all agree on is let’s all pray for their safety while they work their way through.