Online: Tennessee Titans back to work after virus outbreak, News+Notes,
NASHVILLE, TENN. >> The Tennessee Titans have heard some of the calls for the NFL to punish them harshly for the team’s role in the league’s first COVID-19 outbreak, and they have some words of caution after first-hand experience.
It’s still a pandemic. And testing, even as much as the NFL does, is not perfect.
Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill said Saturday it’s been a roller coaster as people with no symptoms test positive while others with full-blown symptoms receive consecutive negative tests on multiple days. He noted everyone had said from the beginning that testing would not prevent the virus from being spread.
“It was really eye- opening and just the fact of we really don’t know, so we have to treat everyone as if they have the virus, unfor tunately,” Tannehill said. “I feel like we probably lost faith in the testing system just through everything we’ve been through over the past week and a half.”
As the Titans’ outbreak grew to 23 with 21 positive tests returned since Sept. 29, safety Kevin Byard said he heard calls for Tennessee to forfeit games as the NFL first postponed, then rescheduled its game with Pittsburgh to Oct. 25. The league also moved Pittsburgh-Baltimore to Nov. 1.
The Titans (3- 0) hope now to host Buffalo (4- 0) on Tuesday night.
What the Titans weren’t talking about was just how this outbreak occurred, not until the NFL and NFL Players Association speak first.
The Titans and the New England Patriots had no positive COVID-19 tests
Saturday, allowing both teams to return to their facilities. The Patriots had not been at their facility since reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore’s test came back positive Wednesday. New England’s game with Denver was moved from Sunday to Monday.
Tennessee (3- 0) hadn’t been together on a field since Sept. 27 when the Titans beat the Vikings 31-30 in Minnesota. Rain forced the Titans inside for practice Saturday.
JETS ACTIVATE RB BELL OFF IR >> Le’Veon Bell will be back in the backfield for the New York Jets.
The star running back was activated from the injured reserve list and he will be eligible to play for the Jets on Sunday at home against the Arizona Cardinals.
Bell spent the last three weeks on IR after injuring a hamstring in the seasonopening loss at Buffalo. Frank Gore has started in all four games at running back, but the 37-year- old veteran is averaging just 3.2 yards per carry.
Tennis
SWIATEK BEATS KENIN FOR FRENCH OPEN TITLE >> With
the poise of a veteran and the shots of a champion, 19-year- old Iga Swiatek picked the perfect place for her first tour-level title: the French Open.
Unseeded and ranked merely 54th, Sw iatek grabbed the last six games to beat Sofia Kenin 6- 4, 6-1 in the final at Roland Garros, becoming the first Polish tennis player to win a Grand Slam singles trophy.
Swiatek is the first woman to triumph in Paris without ceding a set since Justine Henin in 2007.
And she did it with victories over such opponents as 2018 champion Simona Halep and 2019 runnerup Marketa Vondrousova, both by scores of 6-1, 6-2.
Pro basketball
LAKERS DIDN’T LIKE CALLS, BUT NBA SAYS THEY WERE RIGHT ONES >> The NBA said that two calls that sent Jimmy Butler to the line in the final minute of Game 5 of the NBA Finals held up in the league’s customary review of close games.
The calls the Lakers’ took issue with came with 46.7 seconds left and 16.8 seconds remaining, the first one charged to Markieff Morris and the other charged to Anthony Davis.