The Tennessee Titans face could face “historic” discipline for violating COVID-19 protocols, and there are people around the NFL who believe they should be forced to forfeit Week 5's game against the Buffalo Bills.
This comes in the wake of yet another Titans player testing positive for COVID-19 on Thursday morning, with another inconclusive positive test from Wednesday being confirmed as a legitimate positive, per ESPN's Adam Schefter. This brings the total number of positives in this Titans outbreak to 23 over the last couple of weeks.
The Titans' facility remains closed after they had to postpone their Week 4 matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers until Oct. 25. Tennessee is under scrutiny for a large group of players participating in an off-site workout, which is why some believe a forfeit should be in play:
Lot of this sentiment in the league. https://t.co/vejiuWB6kO
— Ed Werder (@WerderEdESPN) October 8, 2020
While a forfeit reportedly hadn't been discussed as of Wednesday, it could be on the table now:
“Was told yesterday a forfeit hadn't been discussed for the Titans,” NFL.com's Judy Battista tweeted on Thursday. “Have to wonder if that changes as the situation continues. Potentially 2nd game impacted — no place to put a rescheduled game unless they create a week 18. A mess that's created a lot of anger around the league.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell issued a memo on Monday (after the Titans' get-together) in which he acknowledged that forfeiting games could be a possibility for protocol violations:
“Protocol violations that result in virus spread requiring adjustments to the schedule or otherwise impacting other teams will result in additional financial and competitive discipline, including the adjustment or loss of draft choices or even the forfeit of a game,” Goodell wrote, according to the The Associated Press.
This whole situation is rather complicated. In addition to all these positive tests and the fact that the Titans are out of byes, the Bills are scheduled to play against the Kansas City Chiefs next Thursday. ESPN's Diana Russini reports that if the Titans' game against the Bills is pushed back to Monday or Tuesday, the Bills' showdown with the Chiefs could be pushed back until Saturday, Oct. 17.
ESPN's Chris Mortensen also made sure to point out further complications involving the Bills and their game checks:
Then @Bills players would not be paid game check under revised COVID-19 terms.
It's hot-button topic players are discussing among each other.
Roster sizes, game-day actives, IR modifications and COVID-19 designations were among conditions put into place to avoid this scenario https://t.co/PU42wH3Fnj— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) October 8, 2020
The NFL and NFLPA are trying to figure out this mess, and everything seems to be fluid at the moment.
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