KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a wrench into the Chiefs' Week 4 schedule, but it could have a longer-lasting effect, too.
The Chiefs and Patriots won't play Sunday after players for both teams tested positive for COVID-19 _ Patriots starting quarterback Cam Newton and Chiefs practice squad quarterback Jordan Ta'amu. The NFL is targeting Monday or Tuesday as potential rescheduling possibilities, dependent on contact tracing and the result of other players' tests over the next couple of days.
That would solve the Week 4 problem but potentially create another.
As currently scheduled, the Chiefs play host to the Raiders on Oct. 10 before traveling to Buffalo for Thursday Night Football on Oct. 15.
So if they indeed play the Patriots on Tuesday _ and that certainly remains an if _ the Chiefs would be scheduled for three games in 10 days.
That's ... a lot of football.
It's not entirely unheard of. In 2018, the NFL scheduled the Jets to open the season on a Monday, then play the following Sunday and then play on Thursday in Week 3. That marked three games in 11 days.
"Did it in 2018. It's hell," said Darron Lee, a member of that Jets team and also a member of the Chiefs' Super Bowl championship last year.
After three clean weeks without COVID interrupting the season, the NFL has encountered obstacles this week.
Given the fact that football is a physically demanding contact sport, the potential alterations to schedules create additional dilemmas that sports like MLB could solve with doubleheaders. The NFL, obviously, does not have such an option.
This week's Steelers-Titans game was also postponed after an outbreak of positives tests within the Titans' locker room. The NFL shifted around other future games to allow them to make up the game in Week 7, a move that also modified the Ravens' schedule.
