A source said that the NFL and NFLPA are continuing an investigation into whether the Titans violated protocolsGETTY IMAGES
The Titans were told by the NFL on Sept. 29 that "in-person activities were prohibited" after having numerous positive COVID-19 cases, according to a source cited by Erik Bacharach of the Nashville TENNESSEAN. That refutes any speculation that the Titans were informed by the league "not to gather or conduct group football activities only after a group of Titans players met at a local private school on Sept. 30 for an informal workout." A source said that the NFL and NFLPA are "continuing an investigation into whether the Titans violated COVID-19 protocols." That informal workout at the private school is "part of that review." Disciplinary measures for protocol violations that lead to schedule adjustments "could include the loss or adjustment of draft picks and even the potential for forfeits" (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 10/8). Bacharach in a separate piece cites a source as saying that the Titans "returned no positive COVID-19 test results" on Friday. It marks just the "third time in the last 11 days that Tennessee has returned only clean test results" (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 10/9).
MAKE THEM PAY? In Pittsburgh, Joe Starkey writes he is "not necessarily blaming" the Titans for their outbreak, but he is "blaming the Titans for spitting in the league's face Sept. 30 by reportedly holding a secret, players-only workout against NFL orders." This was not the Titans violating a league-wide edict, it was "an order issued directly to them a day earlier." The Titans did this "defiantly and secretly, and they should be made to pay." Starkey: "Make them forfeit a game. Or two" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 10/9).
MIXED FEELINGS: SI.com's Albert Breer wrote there is "little question left that what we're seeing in Tennessee right now constitutes failure." Going back two weeks, the Titans have had "23 positive tests, 13 from players." By comparison, over the first two weeks of the season, there were "two positive tests from players leaguewide." Breer: "Some are furious with the Titans over their alleged handling of the protocols, which, the thinking goes, opened the door for all of this. But others saw what the NFL did the other day as, in the words of one executive, 'shaming' Tennessee in an effort to distance the league office from the outbreak" (SI.com, 10/8).
