Raiders starting O-line home after positive test

The Las Vegas Raiders sent all five starting offensive linemen home as part of coronavirus contact tracing after right tackle Trent Brown was placed on the reserve/ COVID-19 list with a positive test.

The Raiders held practice Oct. 21 without their starting five as they prepare for Sunday’s home game against Tampa Bay. Safety Johnathan Abram also was held out because of contract tracing.

“I guess they were around Trent,” coach Jon Gruden said. “I can’t get into things any more than that. Hopefully we’ll get some players back tomorrow or for Sunday.”

Gruden says the team is listening to the league about how to handle the situation.

The Raiders had the week off last week and returned to practice on Oct. 19. Brown took part in that practice but has since tested positive.

College basketball

COACH OUT » Pat Chambers resigned as Penn State’s basketball coach following an internal investigation by the school into allegations of inappropriate conduct.

Chambers, 49, had been at Penn State for nine years and was coming offthe team’s best season under his directions.

Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour said during a news news conference that she would not disclose details of the school’s investigation, but did say NCAA matters were not part of the investigation.

The investigation followed July story by ESPN’s “The Undefeated” that quoted a former Penn State player saying Chambers made an insensitive remark to him, referencing a noose during the 2018-19 season.

College football

GATORS HOPE TO BE BACK NEXTWEEK » No. 10 Florida is planning to start returning to its football facility Oct. 26, nearly two weeks after the program shut down because of a COVID-19 outbreak.

Coach Dan Mullen, one of more than two dozen Gators who tested positive for the coronavirus last week, sounded congested as he said the team had a new positive Oct. 21.

“We’re trying to see now if any new case could have been from the original spread on the team or if these are individuals kind of not following the kind of the quarantine procedure or just going out and getting it on their own because there’s no football going on right now,” Mullen said on the weekly Southeastern Conference coaches call.

FORMER SPARTANS AD DIES » Merritt Norvell Jr., the first Black athletic director at Michigan State, has died. He was 79. A spokesman at the University of Nevada confirmed that football coach Jay Norvell, who is Merritt Norvell’s son, took some time away from the team because of his father’s death. He left Reno on Oct. 19 to go to Michigan and was expected back either Oct. 21 or 22.