Browns coach to miss playoff game due to COVID

Two days after celebrating their return to the NFL playoffs, the Cleveland Browns were knocked flat.

COVID-19 will keep coach Kevin Stefanki — and at least two players, one a Pro Bowler — out of the team’s first playoff game since the 2002 season.

The Browns announced Tuesday — 18 years to the day since their last playoff game — that Stefanski tested positive with the virus, which has plagued the team in recent weeks and now causing a devastating disruption as Cleveland prepares to play the Pittsburgh Steelers for the second straight week on Sunday.

Just 48 hours ago, the Browns fans were overjoyed by the team ending the league’s longest playoff drought with a 24-22 win over the Steelers, who rested quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and other prominent starters to be fresh for the playoff opener.

Now, the Browns are launching contingency plans that have been in place since the pandemic began.

Stefanski tested positive along with Pro Bowl left guard Joel Bitonio, wide receiver KhaDarel Hodge and two coaching staff members - tight ends coach Drew Petzing and defensive backs coach Jeff Howard. The Browns already had six players and three other assistants on the reserve COVID-19 list.

Special teams co-ordinator Mike Priefer will be the acting head coach Sunday.

NFL rules state that anyone testing positive must be away from the team at least 10 days.

League spokesman Brian McCarthy said there is no change to the status of Sunday night’s game at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. He added the league is continuing to conduct standard contact tracing to identify any possible high-risk close contacts.

“If any players or personnel are identified as such, they would remain apart from the team and facilities for five days from the last exposure to a positive individual,” McCarthy said in an email to The Associated Press. “They would be eligible to return to the team and play in the game.”

Because Bitonio and Hodge played against the Steelers, there would seem to be concern that some Pittsburgh players could become infected.