PANTHERS HAD IMPROPER GATHERINGS OUTSIDE FACILITY
NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills says the Panthers’ COVID-19 transmission was linked back “to some gathering of players outside the team facility” during Carolina’s bye week. The Panthers placed eight players on the COVID-19/reserve list on Monday, forcing the team to close its facility for two days.
The NFL has worked with the club and the players involved and Sills said he thinks there will be improvement with repeated messaging about what players should and shouldn’t be doing away from the team’s facility.
Carolina reported no additional positive tests on Wednesday and eligible players returned to practice.
The Panthers potentially face fines and a loss of a draft pick. The Las Vegas Raiders were fined $500,000, coach Jon Gruden was docked $150,000 and the team lost a sixth-round pick for its COVID-19 protocol violations about a month ago following a repeat offense.
Also, a thigh injury could put Christian McCaffrey’s return to the field on hold.
The Panthers’ 2019 AllPro running back, who has already missed nine games with a high ankle sprain and a shoulder sprain, was limited in practice Wednesday with a new injury to his thigh.
Panthers coach Matt Rhule said McCaffrey tweaked his thigh last week during private workouts and it resurfaced on Wednesday. That has left his status for Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos up in the air with Rhule now saying “we’ll see if he’s available to play versus the Broncos.”
Dez fallout
Sills says all procedures followed before the Ravens’ game Tuesday night when receiver Dez Bryant tested positive for COVID-19 were done properly and in the same manner as for every case.
Bryant had an inconclusive test result after he was active for the game. He was removed from the field during warmups and tested again. The league and the Ravens then conducted contact tracing, but found no close contacts that would have caused an interruption in playing the game against Dallas, nor the removal of other players or team personnel.
“I made the final determination that there were no high-risk close contacts to the case, so there was no need to remove anyone else,” Sills said.
Diversity issues
A diversity report in the NFL assigned high grades for the league office but lagging scores at team levels for racial and gender hiring.
Wednesday’s report card from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at Central Florida assigned an overall B-minus grade for the league, with a B-plus for racial hiring and a C for gender hiring. The report examined a range of positions at the league headquarters and within franchises using data for the 2020 season.
Notable
The NFL has moved the Cleveland-New York Giants game on Dec. 20 from Sunday afternoon into prime time.
Under its f lex policy, the league has switched the original night game, San Francisco-Dallas, to 10 a.m.
PST. Neither the 49ers nor the Cowboys are in serious playoff contention.
The NFL has suspended Broncos cornerback A.J. Bouye six games without pay for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.
While saying his injured right hamstring was feeling better, Giants quarterback Daniel Jones would not say when asked whether he would be able to play this weekend against the Cardinals.
Jets rookie WR Denzel Mims is dealing with what coach Adam Gase called “a personal issue” and could miss the game Sunday at Seattle.