NFL change on COVID-19 means Seahawks likely have more cases than their testing shows
If we don’t test as much, we won’t have as many positive tests.
That’s what the NFL and its players union have concluded with its new COVID-19 testing protocol for vaccinated players, as the omicron variant spreads through the nation, world and league.
Prior to last week, the NFL had mandated every vaccinated player — an estimated 94% of the league’s 1,696 players on active rosters plus up to 512 more players on practice squads — test at least once each week for the coronavirus. Then, as the Los Angeles Rams, Cleveland Browns and Washington Football Team had positive cases by the dozens last week, the NFL went against its previous policy for 2021 and postponed their games — including the Seahawks at the Rams. The league and its NFL Players’ Association instituted new, random-sampling testing of players who have yet to have a confirmed COVID case.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll explained Wednesday the new testing protocol pulls two players at random off Seattle’s roster, “and a couple people from coaching staff and administration,” and tests them once per week. Seattle’s random test day was Wednesday, the day after its 20-10 loss at the Rams in the first Tuesday game in team history.
Will Dissly was one of the two random players selected. The vaccinated tight end tested positive. He’s the 11th Seahawks player to go on the COVID-19 list.
Alex Collins came off the list Wednesday. The team’s season rushing leader plus top wide receiver Tyler Lockett both missed the Rams game because of their positive tests last Thursday.
Carroll said Lockett “is real close, and some guys are close to getting back” off the COVID list, perhaps before the Seahawks (5-9) host the Chicago Bears (4-10) Sunday at 1:05 p.m.
Lockett and Collins got positive tests after they reported symptoms the day following each having a negative test last week. Players who report symptoms still will get tested immediately at team facilities under the new NFL protocol.
Otherwise, it’s luck of the draw.
Or unluck of the draw, given how widespread COVID with the omicron variant is in the league and country right now.
“The league designates a few guys on — I don’t know how random it is, I don’t know how they do it — but they select guys to get tested and they use those guys kind of as the test case for what needs to come from that,” Carroll said. “They don’t feel like it’s necessary for us to test in a mandatory fashion, so that’s kind of where we are.
“We’re kind of in a messed-up week because it’s so short as well. We’re just going about our business, listening to the guys and making sure everybody feels okay and doing alright. If anybody has any kind of symptoms at all, then they’ll eventually get tested there.”
Likely more than reported
The NFL began this week with a record number of 47 players going on the list Monday. Thursday, the New Orleans Saints’ Taysom Hill tested positive, leaving that team down to its third quarterback to play in their week 16 game. By percentage of players vaccinated across the league, a large number of those on the COVID list right now are vaccinated.
And by percentage of omicron spread, the NFL likely had more than 47 cases on Monday.
Chances are stronger by the day that Dissly is not the only vaccinated Seahawk who has COVID, yet is still practicing and playing on and carrying the coronavirus. That’s simply because by the new NFL protocol this is the first week of the season they haven’t tested for the coronavirus.
“Yes. Yes, that is a concern,” Carroll said.
“What has shifted here is the impact of a positive test is being taken differently. The league has really made a declaration. We’ve done a lot of work with the connections that we have on the science end of the world to try to keep track and really follow and learn from what the league has said. The indications that we’re getting to is the guys aren’t having symptoms. Some guys are testing positive, they don’t feel anything.
“That’s kind of what’s going on with the new omicron. Omicron to us, it’s a little bit of a different thing than we were dealing with earlier in the year. We’re just learning as we go. It’s so new. There just isn’t a ton of information, but the league feels really strongly. This is the way they’re guiding us to do it.
“We’re trying to figure this out and do it the best we possibly can.”
This change is counter to Carroll’s thinking.
For the two years of the pandemic, Seattle’s 70-year-old coach has been a constant advocate for protecting each other and others from COVID-19. At team cost, he’s had testing at the Seahawks facility for even players’ families and friends daily last season, before the vaccine became available. This spring, summer and fall he’s had everyone connected to the Seahawks getting vaccinated at team headquarters.
Two weeks ago he hosted a drive for players, families and friends to get COVID booster shots.
Had been the standard
Until this latest surge across America, the Seahawks set the standard in team sports for handling, and avoiding, COVID-19.
Seattle had just one positive COVID case in two years. It was the only NFL team without a confirmed positive case in the 2020 season. That was tight end Gerald Everett, late this September.
Quarterback Russell Wilson said last week he tests for COVID just about every day — at his house.
“I’ve always been taking precautions along the way,” Wilson said.
In the last seven days the Seahawks have had 11 player cases plus linebackers coach John Glenn. He tested positive and also missed the Rams game.
“This is a crucial week,” Carroll said. “Last week was the onset of this change. It was really obvious and really clear to us. We haven’t had anything to really deal with, and then all of a sudden we do.
“Things change and we’ve been adamant and strict as can be on our stuff. Something changed, and we know that. We’re a good test case in that regard to know that.”
The Seahawks began this season with all but two of their 69 players vaccinated. All season until this week, Carroll has had every vaccinated Seahawks player test twice each week, doubling the NFL requirement.
Will he have the Seahawks continue to test above the league requirement under its new, random-testing protocol?
“We’re trying to figure it out day-by-day, for now,” Carroll said. “We’re apt to do whatever we need to do, dealing with the players as well.
“We’re doing this one day at a time right now.”
Dollar, dollar bills
This NFL and its players’ union head-in-the-sand approach to COVID is, of course, all about money.
The league is always, bottom line, end of the day, week, month and year, about making money.
The change to random-only testing is to keep playing games through February’s Super Bowl. The stakes for the league to do that are higher now than last season.
The 2020 schedule was played through its entirety with many stadiums empty of fans, and others at far-reduced capacities, because of public-health restrictions for the coronavirus.
This season, there are rear ends to keep in seats at $100 per and up. There are luxury suites and $75 parking spots to keep filled. There are $15 beers and $10 hot dogs to be consumed.
There are millions of dollars per team, per game, at stake beyond shared revenue from the billion-dollar television contracts to bring in.
Canceled games would also mean players don’t get paid, per commissioner Roger Goodell’s directive in July to teams for the 2021 season regarding COVID-19.
Browns center JC Tretter is the president of the NFL Players’ Association. His Browns played Las Vegas Monday in a game postponed from Saturday, after the Browns had more than 20 COVID cases.
The league also rescheduled Washington at Philadelphia from Sunday to Tuesday in addition to Seahawks-Rams, because of COVID cases rising sharply on Washington’s team last week.
“Our position as a union is that we fight for wages, benefits and working conditions,” Tretter told reporters in Cleveland Wednesday. “And we don’t worry about competitive balance. We don’t worry about standings...so the NFL’s position last week was that those three games were going to be canceled. They were going to be played. And if they weren’t played, then nobody on either team was going to be paid.
“That’s obviously an issue for us as a union, when over 18% of our player population was at risk of not getting paid last week.”
Upon the union’s push-back, the NFL and NFLPA settled on the new testing cadence, from mandatory to random. The change in testing is for one reason: Let’s keep the players on rosters, and off COVID lists, because these games are not getting canceled.
“They’re not thinking that (now), at all,” Carroll said of canceling a game, when asked what is the threshold of positive tests and players out before the NFL would do that. “I don’t have that information because it’s not even in their mindset.
“It’s going to have to take a whole different set of circumstances than what has happened so far, what they think is going to happen, to change the situation. They’re thinking, we’re playing.”
This is the opposite of the National Hockey League. It has paused its season after continuing to test vaccinated players, and finding too many players were becoming positive. Too many players off the ice meant games postponed if not canceled.
The NFL isn’t about to do that — because it has mostly stopped testing.
“I know it’s interesting because the NHL has done some stuff, everybody’s thinking about what’s going on and how we’re going to handle it. It’s just so darn new, we don’t have any stats,” Carroll said. “We don’t’ have any statistics to go on other than a couple other countries that have been through this.
“They’re doing the best they can with their information, and I’m following it because the backing that we have been following all along supports what they’re thinking. That’s why we’re adjusting with them and we’re trying to find out as we go what’s right.
“We’re going to eventually figure it out because we’re so connected and tuned into this thing. I’m hoping that we don’t have an issue that we couldn’t predict and that we can keep our guys safe and keep moving forward. We’ll see how it goes.”
This story was originally published December 23, 2021 at 11:00 AM.
