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NFL has postponed its first game of the 2021 season in response to the league's latest COVID-19 outbreak. - The Week 15 game between the Raiders and Browns scheduled for Saturday was pushed back to Monday night.
The NFL has its first postponed game of the 2021 season in response to the league's latest outbreak of COVID-19 cases.
The Week 15 game between Raiders and Browns, originally scheduled for Saturday, would be pushed back to Monday night, according to multiple reports.
—IG: JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) December 17, 2021
Two other games scheduled for Sunday — Philadelphia Eagles vs. Washington Football Team and Los Angeles Rams vs. Seattle Seahawks — are also under consideration for being postponed.
—Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 17, 2021
—Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 17, 2021
The league saw a significant uptick in cases at the start of the week, with 75 players — nearly 4% of the league — testing positive on Monday and Tuesday alone.
Positive cases continued to come in through the rest of the week, with especially dramatic outbreaks among the Cleveland Browns, Washington Football Team, and Los Angeles Rams, who all saw at least 20 players put on the reserve/COVID-19 list.
Cleveland and Washington had multiple quarterbacks test positive for COVID-19, leaving them to rush to sign players if they were left to play games short-handed.
The postponements were a last resort for the league that had been extremely open with their desire to play through the season as scheduled.
Over the summer, with vaccinations widely available, the NFL took a hard stance this season against the schedule maneuvering that took place in 2020. The league put out a new policy regarding games impacted by
"In light of the substantial roster flexibility in place for the 2021 season, absent medical considerations or government directives, games will not be postponed or rescheduled simply to avoid roster issues caused by injury or illness affecting multiple players, even within a position group."
Between expanded practice rosters, vaccines, and protocols, the league expected players to be able to stay on the field.
But while the NFL announced in the offseason that teams unable to play due to a COVID-19 outbreak would face forfeiting games and covering their cost, the rule is rather carefully worded.
Per the NFL (emphasis our own):
"If a game is canceled/postponed because a club cannot play due to a Covid spike among or resulting from its non-vaccinated players/staff, then the burden of the cancellation or delay will fall on the club experiencing the Covid infection. We will seek to minimize the burden on the opposing club or clubs. If a club cannot play due to a Covid spike in vaccinated individuals, we will attempt to minimize the competitive and economic burden on both participating teams."
At the time, the NFL attempted to send a message: get vaccinated. But the policy's wording also left the league a bit of leeway on handling outbreaks depending on whether the players testing positive were vaccinated. In July, Browns general manager Andrew Berry said that more than 90% of the team's roster had received at least their first dose of the vaccine.
The wiggle room allowed by the distinction between outbreaks among vaccinated vs. unvaccinated players likely helped the league and NFLPA push back the since-moved Week 15 contests.
The NFL will want to keep the schedule as unchanged as possible moving forward. However, now that they have opened the door for pushing games back, teams that experience outbreaks later in the season will have a strong argument for similar grace periods.