No Postponement Planned Despite Browns Covid Surge: Goodell

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said there had been no talk of postponing Saturday's Raiders-Browns clash despite a Covid-19 outbreak among the Browns that includes quarterback Baker Mayfield

Los Angeles, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Dec, 2021 ) :NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said there had been no talk of postponing Saturday's Raiders-Browns clash despite a Covid-19 outbreak among the Browns that includes quarterback Baker Mayfield.

"There has not been any discussion about that," Goodell said in Texas, where league meetings concluded on Wednesday. "We feel confident that with continuing changes and adaptations through our protocols that we can (play)." Browns quarterback Mayfield and head coach Kevin Stefanski entered the NFL's Covid-19 protocols on Wednesday as a surge in coronavirus cases continued.

The Browns said in a statement Mayfield was among five players placed on the Covid-19/reserve list, a day after eight Cleveland players were put on the list.

Under NFL confidentiality rules, teams are not allowed to say whether players placed on the list have tested positive for Covid-19 or have been in contact with someone infected with the virus.

However US media reports said that Mayfield had recorded a positive test.

Mayfield, who is vaccinated, must test negative twice within 24 hours in order to be able to return for the Browns clash with the Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday.

In a separate announcement, the Browns said Stefanski has tested positive for Covid-19.

If Stefanski is unable to provide two negative results before Saturday, special teams coordinator Mike Priefer will work the sideline against the Raiders.

It is the second time this year that Stefanski has been sidelined by Covid-19. In January, he was forced to miss the Browns' wild card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers after testing positive for the virus.

The cases in Cleveland are part of a sharp uptick in cases that has swept through sport in North America this week, with basketball and ice hockey both forced to postpone games because of rising cases.

The Los Angeles Rams, who closed their practice facility on Tuesday after nine players were placed on the Covid-19 list, said Wednesday three more players had entered the protocols.

- New phase of pandemic - The Kansas City Chiefs, Washington Football Team and New York Giants also put players on the Covid-19 list on Wednesday.

Goodell said the league expected rules allowing roster flexibility to allow teams to field competitive teams.

"We've given our clubs a lot more flexibility with respect to the ability to remove players off that practice squad and also off the injured reserve," he said. "Those things have allowed clubs to be sure they're maintaining the best competitive product out there." However, with some 100 players testing positive in the past three days, many of them fully vaccinated and two-thirds of them, according to the league, asymptomatic, the league is pondering how to tweak it's health and safety protocols to prevent spread in team facilities.

"We're entering a new phase of the pandemic, different than we've seen before," the NFL's chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, said.

Sills said the league could return to stricter rules on masking, social distancing and virtual meetings in team facilities for all teams. Some of those measures had been relaxed after the advent of vaccines.

But Sills said the league didn't see a benefit to daily testing of players, vaccinated and unvaccinated alike, which some in the players' union have called for. Currently vaccinated players are tested once a week.

"What testing doesn't do is prevent transmission, and we've known that always," Sills said. "That was true last year and it's still true today. As we look at how to respond, what we're trying to do is prevent spread within the facility and keep people from testing positive."