49ERS TO CALL ARIZONA HOME AS COVID GRIPS SANTA CLARA
Ravens-steelers postponed yet again after Baltimore players threaten boycott
Don't feel bad for the San Francisco 49ers. Having to play their next two home games on the road probably helps them.
Even if they have to borrow the home stadium of one of their division rivals, the Arizona Cardinals.
The Niners are 4-2 on the road this season, and 1-4 at home.
But have some pity for those Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers players who have been following every strict league COVID-19 protocol to a T. Their game was postponed a third time on Monday.
Reports said Tuesday night's twice-delayed Baltimore at Pittsburgh game has now been moved to Wednesday at 3:40 p.m. EST.
This after at least one more Ravens player tested positive Monday for the coronavirus. And also, according to reports, because some Ravens players were threatening to boycott the game until their team could hold at least one practice beforehand.
The NFL reportedly ordered the Ravens to cancel Monday's practice — which would have been its first in more than a week — presumably because of the continuing string of positive tests, which imply the team's outbreak perhaps isn't yet under control, as the league had indicated.
More than 20 Ravens players and several team members have been quarantined in the last eight days either for being infected With COVID-19, or as high-risk close contacts of the infected.
Pittsburgh's scheduled home game this Sunday against Washington will be moved to the following day, Dec. 7, while Dallas at Baltimore is moved again, from that day and time to next Tuesday. As for the 49ers, if you missed it on the weekend, public-health officials in Santa Clara County — where the 49ers' headquarters and home stadium are located, about an hour's drive south of San Francisco — issued an emergency, pandemic-battling directive that has gone into effect for the next three weeks.
It bans all sports practices and games involving player-to-player contact. That means football, of course.
The Niners were scheduled to play home games at Levi's Stadium this coming Monday against Buffalo and on Sunday, Dec. 13 against Washington. On Monday the 49ers announced they reached an agreement with the Arizona Cardinals and the NFL to host their home games against Buffalo and Washington at State Farm Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, where the
Cardinals call home. Still to be determined by late afternoon Monday is where the 49ers will hold practices until the Santa Clara COVID-19 directive expires on Monday, Dec. 21.
Another quandary for the club could be that the county's “mandatory directive” includes the requirement that “persons entering the county” must “quarantine for 14 days upon return from travel of more than 150 miles (242 kilometres).”
Glendale is some 700 km away. So must all 49ers team personnel leave the county — and their families — for the next three weeks? And whether they do or don't, must they all quarantine for 14 days upon their return? If so, how are they supposed to play their final two regular-season games?
Answers to those questions were still unknown publicly by late Monday afternoon.
The timing of Santa Clara County's bombshell on Saturday afternoon caught everyone employed by the 49ers off guard, from ownership on down. They learned about it literally as they boarded their flight to Los Angeles.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan still didn't sound happy about it following Sunday's win over the Rams.
Elsewhere, the Denver Broncos' coronavirus test results Monday morning all came back negative. The team's three quarterbacks parked Saturday on Covid-19/reserve — Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles — tested negative Monday, along with the rest of the team. All three were in quarantine on Sunday and unable to play against the New Orleans Saints. The Broncos' emergency QB, practice-squad wide receiver Kendall Hilton, took most of the snaps with only a few hours of preparation. New Orleans won 31-3.
The still-quarantined trio might be punished further for breaching protocols late last week, head coach Vic Fangio said Monday.
All NFL teams but Monday -night combatants Seattle and Philadelphia, plus the Ravens and Steelers, were ordered by the league on Saturday to work remotely this week until Wednesday, to try to stem the coronavirus tide. More than 40 players last week were parked on Covid-19/reserve.
VIKINGS MAKING LATE PUSH FOR PLAYOFFS
Don't discount the Minnesota Vikings from reaching the playoffs again.
Since starting 0-3 and 1-5, Mike Zimmer's Vikings have won four of five. They're now 5-6.
And with three of their last five opponents being Jacksonville, Chicago and Detroit, their post-season hopes might rest on how they fare against Tampa Bay on Dec. 13 and New Orleans on Christmas Day.
“We've still got a lot of football left to play,” Zimmer said.
NFL CHOOSES THREE BOXING DAY GAMES
The NFL on Monday firmed up its Christmas weekend schedule.
Since April, five matchups had been under consideration for three time slots on Boxing Day — Saturday, Dec. 26. The league has settled on Tampa Bay at Detroit (1 p.m. EST), San Francisco at Arizona (4:30 p.m. EST) and Miami at Las Vegas (8:15 p.m. EST).
The Minnesota-new Orleans Christmas Day game kicks off at 4:30 p.m. EST.