With the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers dealing with rising numbers of COVID-19 cases and nationwide spikes of the infection, the NFL is considering isolating team personnel during the playoffs. That comes from NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport.
Under the plan being discussed, team personnel would be housed in hotels in their home city and only travel to the team facility and the airport. With the size and scope of NFL rosters and support staff, creating a league-wide or even conference-wide bubble is not feasible.
If you’re an NFL player from the Wild Card round all the way through the Super Bowl, that’s a month spent away from your family. The NFL Players Association would have to sign off on the plan and that seems like a pretty big ask. Buffalo Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White almost opted out of the season because his longtime girlfriend and mother of his children wouldn’t be able to have family in town to help with their kids. In this scenario, White wouldn’t even be home to handle those duties.
At 7-3, the Buffalo Bills have a 90-something percent chance of making the postseason according to multiple analytics sites. We’ll continue following the story.