KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Since the menace of the COVID-19 coronavirus permeated our existences in mid-March, began killing more than 200,000 Americans and counting and made havoc of a sports world long taken for granted, a few themes have held true among all the unknowns:
The stealth enemy looms ever-present, deny it as some might. Just when you may think you have a notion of its scope and trajectory, you're reminded you have no idea. And, well, about everything remains in flux and must be considered tentative in some way or another.
One day after a still-rippling outbreak at the White House led to the hospitalization of President Donald Trump, the NFL announced Saturday that the Chiefs-Patriots game scheduled for Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium was being postponed either to Monday or Tuesday because of positive COVID-19 tests on both teams.
The decision emerged hours after a report that New England quarterback Cam Newton had tested positive for the coronavirus, a development soon punctuated by the revelation that Chiefs practice squad quarterback Jordan Ta'amu had also tested positive.
It was not known, as of mid-afternoon Saturday, where or how Newton or Ta'amu had become infected.
This surfaced despite the NFL's elaborate protocols ... at least as far as it can control the setting at team facilities.
"In consultation with infectious disease experts, both clubs are working closely with the NFL and the NFLPA to evaluate multiple close contacts, perform additional testing and monitor developments," the NFL said. "All decisions will be made with the health and safety of players, team and gameday personnel as our primary considerations."
Indeed, even this dramatic action has to be considered fluid in a week already marked by Sunday's Tennessee-Pittsburgh game being moved to Oct. 25 as known infections in the Titans organization increased to 18 on Saturday. That brings into question whether Tennessee's scheduled next game, against Buffalo on Oct. 11, could be subject to change.
Which in turn could be part of an increasing scheduling Rubik's Cube for the Chiefs, who are tentatively (there's that word again) supposed to play at Buffalo on Oct. 15.
If that part of the plan holds up, the Chiefs as of Saturday afternoon are to play three games in 10 or 11 days, with the Raiders scheduled for Oct. 11 in Kansas City.
But that's getting ahead of ourselves, isn't it?
Because even with all Chiefs players tested daily and provided contact tracers, it's impossible to gauge the full fallout of the infections on the Chiefs (and Patriots) at this stage. Or even know with certainty that the game will be played this week.
Consider such simple questions as potential exposures during practice in the last week, from Newton with the Patriots' No. 1 offense to Ta'amu likely running the scout team against the No. 1 defense of the Chiefs. Who's to say how much opportunity there's been for contagion to spread ... and if there is more yet to come?
Most to the point for Chiefs fans, or even broader NFL fans: To what degree might superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes have been, or be, at risk? It's a particularly salient point given that Mahomes' fiancee, Brittany Mathews, is pregnant.
While Ta'amu is on the Chiefs' practice squad, he participates in team and smaller positional meetings with Mahomes and backups Chad Henne and Matt Moore.
Some will make the reasonable case that this development means the game must be moved to later in the season. If further spread is evident, that will be a virtual must.
Others will wonder anew how appropriate it will be to continue to let fans attend games at Arrowhead (even at 22% of capacity, as adjusted for COVID so far this season).
And in a sport in which players spew blood, sweat, tears and breath on each other at close range, the season itself could merit reconsideration if these outbreaks aren't demonstrably contained now ... fleeting as that containment might be.
In fact, we may be standing on the verge of an inflection point, reminiscent of what Major League Baseball was facing when outbreaks on the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals made the rest of the summer's rescheduled and shortened season seem precarious at best.
MLB, though, regrouped and withstood the moment and is on into its postseason now.
Standing at a similar crossroads, but with a number of different X-factors, whether the NFL can navigate this crisis in a similar manner is another matter.
Entering the season, Chiefs vice president of sports medicine and performance (and newly appointed Infectious Control Officer) Rick Burkholder figured it was inevitable that "every team is going to have a positive test" even as he described some of the measures prescribed by the NFL in an 80-page "ever-changing document."
"What we hope is we limit our positive tests," he added. "And when we get a positive test, we act accordingly with the CDC to get those people isolated, get them healthy and get them safely back to work."
Now the league's ability to live up to that hope is much more than a hypothetical prospect.
It's the fundamental question of the moment for the NFL and the Chiefs _ not to mention of the very time in which we find ourselves. And beyond the fact that we all enhance our chances to stay healthy by wearing masks and keeping distance and washing our hands obsessively, alas, the answers keep blowin' in the wind whenever you might think they're in hand.
