The Colts-Ravens Week 9 matchup reportedly isn’t in jeopardy after Baltimore had a string of players test positive for COVID-19.
Taking football completely out of the conversation, the biggest thing we’ve learned from the first half of the 2020 season is that the NFL, despite having the luxury of an entire offseason and watching other leagues brainstorm ways to combat COVID-19, failed to implement a proper contingency plan in the event that teams endured outbreaks.
In a nutshell, their only plan, if you can even call it that, was to further inconvenience teams by reshuffling schedules. While we want nothing more than the rest of the season to be carried out, we have to admit that it’s been satisfying to watch the league run out of corners to cut.
There’s only so many more games the NFL can postpone before it runs into a serious scheduling issue, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that its braintrust has decided to move forward with games involving teams impacted by positive tests.
The Indianapolis Colts fall under that category as their Week 9 opponent, the Baltimore Ravens, currently have eight players on the COVID-19 reserve list, but head coach John Harbaugh revealed that he hasn’t heard any noise in regards to potentially postponing Sunday’s huge matchup.
John Harbaugh: No discussions about postponing Week 9 game due to COVID-19 https://t.co/GXbgUQn857
— The Ravens Wire (@TheRavensWire) November 4, 2020
Well, there you have it, Colts fans. Short of the Ravens announcing more positive tests between now and the weekend, Sunday’s game will proceed as scheduled at 1 p.m. ET. It is worth noting, however, that cornerback Marlon Humphrey was the only player on Baltimore’s 53-man roster who contracted the virus.
The reigning All-Pro has been instructed to self-isolate for a minimum of 10 days before he can return to the team. Given that timetable, he will miss the game vs Indianapolis. Baltimore hasn’t produced a positive test since Humphrey, but it’s still scary to think about all the players he was in contact with before coming down with COVID.
As per league protocols, the remaining seven players — six of who had contact with Humphrey on game day and one who had social contact — will self isolate for a minimum of five days, meaning they have a chance to be cleared for Sunday as long as they produce several negative tests in a row and show no symptoms.
There actually will be seven #Ravens players added to the Reserve/COVID-19 list today, I'm told -- six who had game-day contact with CB Marlon Humphrey, plus another who had social contact. None of them will practice this week, but all should be on track to be cleared by Sunday.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) November 3, 2020
We’ll provide further updates on this matter if necessary, but at this point fans in Indianapolis should prepare for the Colts to take on the Ravens in a game that will accurately determine if head coach Frank Reich’s side is a contender or pretender.
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