NFL has its first COVID-19 outbreak as Seahawks prepare to travel to, play in Florida
The NFL has its first outbreak of COVID-19.
The Seahawks are on their way to play in one of the league’s states with the most coronavirus cases, per capita.
But Pete Carroll is not worried.
The Tennessee Titans suspended in-person activities at their team facility until at least Saturday after the NFL said the Titans had three players and five other team personnel test positive for the COVID-19 virus. On Wednesday, the league postponed the Titans’ game against Pittsburgh that had been scheduled for Sunday.
The Titans played last weekend at the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings shut down their team facility through at least Wednesday.
The Seahawks are scheduled to host the Vikings Oct. 11.
This weekend, Carroll and his five dozen or so players plus 70-some coaches and staffers travel to Miami to play the Dolphins in front of what is expected to be 13,000 fans. Last week, Florida’s governor lifted all COVID-19 restrictions on restaurants and bars, saying they could host patrons at full capacities. The state is basically back open from the pandemic.
Florida has about three times the population of Washington, 21.5 million to 7.5 million. As of Tuesday, Florida had almost eight times the total number of COVID-19 cases than Washington, 705,000 to 90,600. Florida had about seven times more deaths than Washington, more than 14,000 to the Evergreen State’s 2,200.
Dolphins president Tom Garfinkel told si.com last month: “By the end of July, positive rates in Miami-Dade County were above 20%. One out of every five people had it.”
Those rates have improved.
Carroll said his team’s infectious control personnel and staff have been talking to the managers of the Miami resort hotel in which the Seahawks will be staying Friday and Saturday nights for Sunday’s game. The coach said the hotel has assured the Seahawks it will be following all of the NFL’s protocols for road-team travel.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday the league sent two memorandums in the last two days to all teams warning of possible suspensions and loss of draft choices if they don’t follow all of the NFL’s protcols on COVID-19 safety, travel and game-day operations in this unprecedented season.
“If we are to play a full and uninterrupted season, we all must remain committed to our efforts to mitigate the risk of transmission of the virus,” NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent wrote to teams in a Wednesday memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
In Atlanta for Seattle’s first road game this season, the team’s hotel had a large man in front of the front door to the lobby enforcing that all who entered were wearing masks. Access from other ways into the hotel was limited. Elevators had a maximum capacity of two, though the players mainly took the stairs and stayed on low floors. Signs all over the hotel in Atlanta stated wearing masks was mandatory for all.
Asked if he and his team were taking extra precautions for the trip to Miami in case the Seahawks’ hotel there was more open than in Atlanta, by nature of Florida being more open than most states, Carroll shook his head before the question was finished.
“Holy cow. That can’t happen. That just can’t happen,” the NFL’s oldest coach at age 69 said. “We really...we can’t let that...I mean, I’m not thinking that, at all. We can’t let the environment make us vulnerable. We can’t let that happen. So we will do everything we can and take every precaution possible.”
The Seahawks have had zero verified positive tests for COVID-19 since daily testing began July 28 at the start of training camp. That includes testing at the team hotel in Atlanta the day before the opener, the days after that Carroll worried about, and through two more hotel stays since. Those have been the team’s customary Saturday-night stays at a hotel in Seattle’s eastside suburbs before Sunday home games the last two weeks, wins over New England and Dallas.
“We are with the hotel (in Miami), we are working with them. They know all of the expectations, and then we have to get there and carry it out and make sure everything is right,” Carroll said.
“We are just a moving bubble, floating all the way to Miami here. And we’ve got to figure that out. And when we get there, we’ve got to keep it as pristine as we can so we pull this off.”
“This” is the NFL’s unprecedented 16-game regular season and then playoffs during a pandemic, in full and on time through a Super Bowl in February.
“We really have figured it out, so far. We’ve been home twice, so we’ve had three hotel stays on the weekends,” Carroll said. “And we’ve survived all of those with negative tests coming out of them. Hopefully, we can crank it out again this week.
“But just because it’s Miami doesn’t make any difference to me, at all. We are trying to steer clear of everybody that we can that haven’t been a part of our bubble, in our (traveling) party, and make sure that we take all of the precautions, and all of that. Really important.”
Particularly in Florida.
The Seahawks have 10 players who are either from or went to college in Florida. Four players are from or played college football in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area. In a normal season, this weekend would be reunions for those players and their families and friends, in and around the team’s hotel.
“We have a lot of guys, a lot of kids from Florida,” Carroll said. “And they’ll have families that could be, that could be around. We have to really steer clear of all that, and if we just stick to the rules, the rules are set up and they are guiding us well, in terms of the protocol and all that. If we just do that very well again and be really disciplined, we’ll crank out another week.
“But, gosh, I’m not thinking that way—other than we are doing everything that we can think of to keep it right.”
This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 7:03 AM.
