2021 is almost over, but it is apparently still 2020.
The NFL on Friday announced that it has rescheduled three Week 15 games — Raiders-Browns, Seahawks-Rams and Washington-Philadelphia — due to a number of players testing positive for COVID-19. [Related: NFL TV schedule.]
Raiders-Browns, which was scheduled for 4:30 PM ET Saturday on NFL Network, has been moved to 5 PM on Monday and will remain on NFL Network. Washington-Philadelphia and Seahawks-Rams, which were scheduled for 1 and 4:25 PM ET Sunday on FOX, will each move to 7 PM Tuesday and remain on FOX.
The postponements are the first of an NFL season that had previously gone off without a hitch.
As of this week, the NFL said that just shy of 95% of its players were vaccinated against COVID-19 and that 30 of the league’s 32 teams had a vaccination rate above the league average. The league has nonetheless seen a sharp rise in COVID-19 positive tests in recent days. While two-thirds of those testing positive have reportedly been asymptomatic, NFL COVID policies seem to be conditioned on vaccinated people not testing positive at all — or doing so only in rare instances.
Last season, the NFL ended up playing games on every night of the week due in large part to postponements.
The NFL is not alone in postponing games. The college basketball schedule is starting to resemble last year’s pockmarked mess of abrupt cancellations and fill-in opponents, several NHL games have been postponed, and the NBA this week postponed its first two games of the season.
[News from NFL]
