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NFL halts covid testing


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This time for everyone. :clap

Unvaccinated NFL players no longer subject to daily testing for rest of playoffs: Memo

By The Athletic Staff

January 21, 2022Updated 8:28 PM EST

38 Comments

Unvaccinated NFL players no longer subject to daily testing for rest of playoffs: Memo. The significant development in the COVID-19 testing protocol was agreed to by both the league and the NFL Players Association.
 

Unvaccinated NFL players will no longer be subject to daily testing for the rest of the postseason, according to a league memo, obtained by The Athletic, that was sent to the remaining eight playoff teams. The significant development in the COVID-19 testing protocol was agreed to by both the league and the NFL Players Association.

 

Moving forward, all players, regardless of vaccination status, will be subject to "targeted" testing. The league is calling this "a comprehensive, symptom-based approach to testing," requiring anyone with COVID-19 symptoms to test. It also said the updated protocol "reflects our recent experience with the omicron variant."

 

The divisional round of the playoffs begins Saturday with the Bengals taking on the top-seeded Titans in the first game of the afternoon, followed by the Packers hosting the 49ers that evening. The Rams-Bucs and Bills-Chiefs games will take place on Sunday.

 

(Photo: Nic Antaya / Getty Images)

How does this impact the remaining teams?

Lindsay Jones, NFL senior writer: For most of the 424 players currently on an active roster of one of the eight remaining playoff teams, this changes very little. According to a league source, there are approximately a dozen unvaccinated players left in the postseason that are not in the middle of the 90-day testing holiday that follows a confirmed positive test within the previous 90 days.

 

(For example, unvaccinated players like Packers' quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who tested positive in early November, and Bills' receiver Cole Beasley, who was on the reserve/COVID-19 list last month, already were out of the pool of players who were testing each day. They, and other players in the same situation, are still subject to testing should they show any symptoms of COVID-19.)

 

Ultimately, this change doesn't eliminate the chance a player could miss a postseason game because of COVID-19, but if a player does wind up on the reserve list, it almost certainly means he's experienced symptoms that led him to get tested.

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