League wants players to reveal virus symptoms

The NFL is stressing the importance of symptom reporting to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in a video featuring coaches Pete Carroll, Andy Reid, John Harbaugh and Ron Rivera.

“It is vital for all players, coaches and other personnel to understand and report symptoms immediately,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a memo sent to teams on Tuesday and obtained by the Associated Press. “It is also essential for our medical staffs to continue their efforts to monitor everyone in the club environment.”

Dr. Allen Sills, the league’s chief medical officer, opens and closes the 2½-minute video. Seattle’s Carroll, Kansas City’s Reid, Baltimore’s Harbaugh and Washington’s Rivera appear to repeat a simple message: “If you feel something, say something.”

“We encourage players and coaches who are feeling ill, no matter how mild the symptoms, it is best to err on the side of caution,” Reid says.

Sills reminds players if they have symptoms but test negative, they will not be held out of the team environment.

More than 93 percent of players and almost all club personnel are vaccinated.

Odds and ends

After shopping him on the trade market the past week, the Detroit Lions released Jamie Collins when they couldn’t find a taker for the veteran linebacker. Signed to a three-year, $30 million deal ahead of the 2020 season, Collins appeared in just 16 games for the Lions, who feel he was blocking rookie Derrick Barnes from seeing the field. …

The Carolina Panthers placed starting safety Juston Burris on injured reserve with a groin injury, meaning he will miss at least three games. He becomes the second Panthers defensive back to go on injured reserve this week, joining cornerback Jaycee Horn, who could miss the remainder of the season after breaking three bones in his right foot against the Texans last week.