The NFL's Thanksgiving Has an Outbreak, Masks and an Enormous Crowd

Three games were scheduled and only two will actually happen. The highly anticipated matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers was called off Wednesday after seven Ravens players received positive test results early in the week. That made it clear the virus was spreading through the team and led the NFL to move the game, that had been scheduled for prime time, to Sunday. 

The day’s other two games—the Houston Texans against the Detroit Lions and the Washington Football Team against the Dallas Cowboys—are expected to go on as scheduled.

The cases in Baltimore are part of a growing reality across the league: as cases have gone up in America,  they’ve also increased  in America’s most popular sport. From Aug. 1 to Nov. 14, there have been 270 NFL players and staff who have tested positive for Covid-19, according to the league. Of those, 108—or 40%—came in the two-week span from Nov. 1 to Nov. 14, the last available testing data the league has released. 

“It reflects the continued uptick that we’re seeing in cases around the country,” NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills said recently. 

Despite  the mounting number of infections  within its own ranks, the NFL had managed in recent weeks to stymie the spread of the virus within individual teams and prevent the cancellation of games, which this late in the year could throw the schedule into chaos. In the wake of an outbreak  inside the Tennessee Titans , and another cluster of cases  inside the New England Patriots  earlier in the year—both of which led to the postponement of games—the NFL  bolstered its protocols  to try to prevent the recurrence of such situations. 

Notably, the league enhanced its contact tracing and required five-day isolation periods for players with a “high-risk” close contact to a known positive. Part of this has led to large numbers of players missing essentially an entire week of practice while in isolation. That also means the consequence of the increased cases in the NFL extends beyond the players who test positive and to their teammates, who can be pulled from action even if they are testing negative. 

Another change to those protocols will be visibly apparent on Thanksgiving. Thursday’s games will be the first ones in which players are required to wear masks when not on the field. In a memo sent to teams, the league said “players who are not substituting or preparing to enter the field of play and are not wearing their helmets will be required to wear a mask or a double-layered gaiter on the sidelines.” 

In the memo, “required” was both bolded and underlined, and it later said players who don’t adhere to this requirement will be subject to discipline. Coaches, who were already required to wear face coverings, and players have previously been fined for violating the NFL’s pandemic policies, while the Las Vegas Raiders were stripped of a draft pick for their violations. 

The Ravens, on Wednesday, said that the team had disciplined a staff member for conduct surrounding the current cluster of cases. Earlier in the season, commissioner Roger Goodell had told teams that protocol violations that lead to changes in the schedule could be subject to league discipline. 

Thursday’s slate of games  was  highlighted by the Baltimore-Pittsburgh matchup. The Ravens, led by reigning most valuable player Lamar Jackson, had the best record in the NFL a year ago and at 6-4 are fighting for a playoff berth against their bitter rival. The Steelers, at 10-0, are the NFL’s last undefeated team and on track for the top seed in the conference, which would yield them a coveted bye in the newly expanded playoffs. 

Now what’s left is two games between four teams that all have losing records. Washington and Dallas are both 3-7 this year, but at least the game is still relevant. That’s because they both play in the woeful NFC East, where the division-leading Philadelphia Eagles are just 3-6-1. A win by either team could put them atop the division. 

That game will also paint a slightly different snapshot of the pandemic. While public health officials have cautioned against large gatherings on Thanksgiving, the Cowboys have hosted the largest crowds in the NFL this season. At their last home game, the listed attendance exceeded 30,000.