Patriots cancel practice after a fifth player tests positive

From New England to Atlanta to Indianapolis, the focus was not on football on Oct. 16. It was on, not surprisingly, coronavirus tests.

The Patriots canceled practice placed center Oct. 16 James and later Ferentz on the reserve/COVID-19 list. He became the fifth player on the team to test positive for the virus.

With the Colts, there were that, when four retested, positive came tests up negative. The Falcons returned to their facility one day after abandoning it when they had a second positive.

New England (2-2) already twice had the original Week 5 matchup against Denver postponed following four earlier positive coronavirus tests by players, including quarterback Cam Newton and cornerback Stephon Gilmore. The game is scheduled for Oct. 18 in Foxborough, Mass., but now could be in jeopardy. “I don’t really know the answer to that,” Broncos coach Vic Fangio said when asked about finally playing the Patriots. “We’re under the assumption and understanding that this game’s going to go off on time. And anything that happens otherwise will happen when it happens.” Newton and Gilmore, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, returned to practice this week for the first time since testing positive for the virus. Newton missed New England’s loss at Kansas City on Oct. 5 after his Oct. 2 positive test. He was activated from the reserve/COVID-19 list on Wednesday. Gilmore, who tested positive on Oct. 7, was activated from the list Thursday. Practice squad player Bill Murray also returned from the COVID-19 list Thursday.

Defensive tackle Byron Cowart, who tested positive on Oct. 11, was joined on the list by Ferentz.

The Broncos (1-3) haven’t played since Oct. 1. If they play Sunday, they’ll have had 16 days between games, one day longer than Tennessee’s layoff before the Titans beat Buffalo on Tuesday night following the NFL’s first COVID-19 outbreak, which affected two dozen members of the organization.

Denver’s layoff is the longest in the league since 2001, when the NFL postponed all games on the weekend following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Three teams — the Saints, Steelers and Buccaneers — had byes when play resumed a week later, so they all had 20 days between games that year. Of those three, only the Steelers won in their return to action.

Ind ia napolis, which played the Browns last week, closed its practice facility, then the four retests came back negative and the building reopened.

Coach Frank Reich did not identify who had the false positives but acknowledged if it wasn’t a player, it was someone who worked closely with the players. He did say the four were kept out of the facility.

Reich had started making contingency plans to play the Bengals on Monday or Tuesday, and also rearranged Friday’s schedule. Meetings were conducted virtually and after the second set of results came back, the Colts went through a lighter-than-normal practice at team headquarters.

“It just made sense that we could jog through, get all the looks we needed to get, get our bodies going a little bit, get the heart rate going a little bit but not going full speed,” Reich said.