In the NFL’s approach to the Broncos and Ravens, fairness was not part of the equation

The NFL had postponed other games this season, including a Broncos’ game at New England in October, because of coronavirus cases. The Baltimore Ravens just had their game at Pittsburgh, scheduled for Thanksgiving night, delayed by the league. That game now has been postponed three times and is currently scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, pending further testing results. The NFL’s approach to the Broncos’ situation was, to those observers, an inequity and an injustice.

“I just feel like going into the game, we [weren’t] given a chance,” Broncos safety Kareem Jackson said after Sunday’s contest went about as expected and the Saints prevailed, 31-3.

But here’s what those decrying a double standard fail to grasp about the NFL’s bid to play a complete 2020 season amid the pandemic: Fair has nothing to do with it.

The NFL has told teams that this season is not about competitive equity; it’s about trying to find ways to get a season played as safely and fully as possible. League leaders also have said that games are postponed solely for medical reasons, not over competitive issues.

“Medical considerations and government directives will be paramount in determining when a game should be postponed,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in an Oct. 13 memo to teams. “In light of the substantial additional roster flexibility in place for this season, absent medical considerations, games will not be postponed or rescheduled simply to avoid roster issues caused by injury or illness affecting multiple players, even within a position group.”

That contrast between medical concerns and competitive issues never was on more vivid display than it was in recent days with the high-profile cases of the Broncos and Ravens.

In the Ravens’ case, the NFL and its medical experts were dealing with the second major outbreak on a team this season, after the one that the Tennessee Titans experienced in late September and early October. The positive tests for Ravens players and team staffers kept coming on a daily basis. The Ravens at one point had 23 players on their covid-19 reserve list, which is for players who test positive for the coronavirus and those determined through contact tracing to have been exposed to the virus.

“The health and safety has been the top priority at every point,” Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, said in an October phone interview. “I think that’s an important point to underscore, that there was never top priority assigned to anything about schedule or competition. It was all about what is the safest possible outcome. … What you’re looking to do is make sure that you don’t have widespread transmission and you’re looking to make sure that you have the ability to create a safe environment for everyone that’s uninfected.”

The NFL relies on its daily testing of players, coaches and certain team staffers and on its strict protocols as it operates in a non-bubble setup with teams based in their home cities. The league knows that, with players and staffers going home each night and potentially being exposed to the virus away from team facilities, it will have to deal with positive cases. Its approach is to identify those infected as quickly as possible and isolate them to prevent transmission within a team. The NFL tweaked its protocols in October to mandate five-day quarantines for those identified as high-risk close contacts.

The NFL performs sophisticated contact tracing using electronic tracking devices. It utilizes genomic sequencing to help determine, when there are multiple cases on a team, whether there is transmission of the virus occurring within the team or if the cases are unrelated and originating separately outside the facility. When the league’s medical experts are unable to get a handle on that and an outbreak is continuing unabated, that’s when disruptions to the schedule occur.

“I would say in those instances where we’ve postponed games, it’s been where we have what we consider to be ongoing transmission for which we don’t have as much of an understanding,” Sills said earlier this season.

That was the case with the Ravens. It wasn’t the case with the Broncos. In the Broncos’ case, quarterback Jeff Driskel reportedly tested positive last week. The NFL determined Saturday that fellow quarterbacks Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles were high-risk close contacts, and they were placed in quarantine.

“You take risks when you put all the quarterbacks in the same room,” Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a radio interview Tuesday with Dallas station 105.3 The Fan. “If you were worried about those things, you can spread them out a little bit. … We have been schooled in the NFL, these teams have been schooled that you had really better pay attention to your protocols. You’d better manage. Don’t just give it lip service, roll your eyes back and say, ‘That happens to them. It doesn’t happen to me.’ ”

The protocols developed by the NFL and the NFL Players Association include strict mask-wearing requirements. When the NFL toughened its protocols recently, teams were told that all meetings should be conducted remotely and any in-person meetings should be outdoors. Indoor meetings are allowable in some instances but not recommended.

Lock acknowledged in a written statement Sunday that the quarterbacks had not adhered fully to the mask-wearing requirements. Broncos Coach Vic Fangio said following Sunday’s game that he was “disappointed” that the quarterbacks “put us in that position.” Wide receiver Kendall Hinton, elevated from the practice squad because he had experience as a college quarterback at Wake Forest, had one completion, two interceptions and a passer rating of 0.0 against the Saints.

“Earlier in the year, our game got pushed back,” Jackson said in a postgame video news conference Sunday. “Obviously it may have been different circumstances. But I just feel like, I mean, we [weren’t] given that same opportunity as far as pushing our game back or delaying it or anything like that.”

Even if some disagree with the approach, the NFL is not about to change course.

“We have recognized for some time that the 2020 season would be unlike any other,” Goodell wrote in his October memo. “We will continue to be challenged by uncertainty and required to address a wide range of factors, which require us to remain flexible, be able to adapt to changing conditions, and understand that the same level of competitive equity that we strive for every year may not be achievable throughout this season.”