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For the second time this week, the N.F.L. has rescheduled the matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens, shifting it to Tuesday evening from Sunday, after the coronavirus outbreak within the Ravens’ clubhouse unfold additional on Thursday, the unique day of the sport.
It is going to be the second N.F.L. sport of this season to be held on a Tuesday evening; the Titans beat the Payments on Oct. 13. As a result of the Ravens at the moment are enjoying on Tuesday, their following sport, scheduled for simply two days later towards the Dallas Cowboys, will now be performed on Monday, Dec. 7, assuming the outbreak in Baltimore doesn’t unfold additional.
The league shifted greater than a dozen video games in September and October, when many groups nonetheless had bye weeks remaining, which gave the schedule makers wiggle room within the 16-game season to accommodate postponements. If extra video games should be postponed, the league could add an additional week to the 17-week common season to permit for make-up video games. The beginning of the playoffs would then be pushed again every week.
The Steelers and the Ravens have been imagined to play on Thanksgiving evening, however a rash of optimistic checks compelled Baltimore to close its apply facility on Monday and Tuesday, and the sport was moved to Sunday afternoon. On Thanksgiving, although, Lamar Jackson, 23, the Ravens quarterback and the league’s reigning most dear participant, was amongst those that examined optimistic for the coronavirus as instances unfold to greater than a dozen gamers on the workforce, in accordance with a number of media shops.
Like different gamers and workers members who take a look at optimistic, Jackson should isolate for 10 days, which suggests he can be unable to play on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the workforce introduced that it had disciplined a workers member for “conduct surrounding” the instances that had affected the gamers and different workforce staff. The Ravens didn’t establish the workers member or elaborate on the character of the misconduct.
It was not clear whether or not Jackson had proven any signs of the virus, which sidelined New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton earlier within the season.
Jackson performed final Sunday towards the Tennessee Titans in a house loss for the Ravens.
In distinction to a few of the different main North American skilled sports activities leagues, the N.F.L. opted to not use a so-called bubble mannequin in the course of the pandemic, with groups enjoying video games in isolation at one or two areas. To date, greater than 200 gamers and different workforce staff throughout the league have examined optimistic for the virus.
Earlier this month, the N.F.L. fined the Las Vegas Raiders $500,000 and their head coach, Jon Gruden, an extra $150,000 for repeated violations of the league’s coronavirus protocols. The league additionally docked the workforce a late-round draft decide. And earlier this season, the league fined a number of coaches for not carrying masks on the sidelines.
Now, the league is grappling with a worsening outbreak that might reverberate properly past the Ravens.
On Monday, Baltimore’s beginning working again, Mark Ingram II, was certainly one of three gamers added to the Ravens’ Covid-19 reserve record. On Wednesday, the workforce’s beginning defensive sort out, Calais Campbell, was certainly one of three extra gamers added to the record.
JuJu Smith-Schuster, the Steelers broad receiver, complained on Twitter in regards to the rescheduling of the Thanksgiving evening sport towards the Ravens and famous that it was the second time that Pittsburgh’s schedule had been modified this season. The Steelers are undefeated.
“First the NFL takes away our bye week as a result of one other workforce can’t get their Covid state of affairs collectively, now they take away our Thanksgiving prime time sport for a similar purpose,” Smith-Schuster wrote on Twitter.
Now the Steelers will nonetheless play in prime time, solely on a Tuesday evening.
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