The NFL has administered about a quarter-million coronavirus tests since the program began Aug. 1, and 173 players have tested positive.
The NFL Players Association delivered the figures Tuesday when laying out the challenges for the final four weeks of the regular season plus the postseason. The biggest issue the rest of the way “is simply going to be the rate of COVID within our communities,” executive director DeMaurice Smith said.
“We’ve gotten to this point because we have great leadership,” Smith said. “Now we find our self literally at the teeth of the virus … We’ve held fast to our protocols and working through those protocols ...
“Our men and our leadership know we have a long ways to go.”
Eighteen players tested positive last week.
He pointed to a positive trend; this week, the players’ positivity rate is .11%, down from .20% last week.
The union said it agreed with decisions to move games when warranted. About 90% of NFL players who test positive do so within five days of being exposed to the virus, the NFLPA said, making time of the essence.
Smith was noncommittal when asked whether he supported players being held in “local bubbles” — hotels — during the postseason, saying that the positivity rate of a particular community could potentially be a complicating factor.
