How Pats are dealing with COVID-19 as Titans-Steelers is pushed back originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The NFL made it three weeks without COVID-19 impacting its schedule.
The league announced Wednesday that Sunday's game between the Steelers and Titans in Tennessee has been postponed after several members of the Titans tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the week.
The game might be rescheduled for Monday or Tuesday, per the league, which would allow both teams' 2020 seasons to stay on track. But the development served as a reminder that COVID-19 presents a very real threat for the NFL.
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was asked about that threat Wednesday morning prior to the Titans-Steelers news.
"We monitor everything every day," Belichick said. "We don’t just do it when there’s a problem or something comes up somewhere else. We do it on a daily basis and make everyone -- because this is everybody, it’s not just players; it’s players and coaches and staff and everybody else -- make everyone aware or if we can do something better, then we talk to them about how we can do it better."
The Patriots haven't recorded a positive COVID test since personnel reported to Foxboro this summer, and Belichick believes his team has been "pretty vigilant" about keeping it that way.
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"All of us (have been) keeping an eye on things that if anybody sees something that’s not the way we talked about it or maybe something’s a little off or that we need to take a better look at, then we do that," Belichick said.
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Still, the news that nine members of the Titans tested positive is proof that the Patriots and other teams need to continue that vigilance.
"It's obviously a good reminder for all of us of the situation that we’re in," Belichick said of Tennessee's positive tests. "Regardless of what we have or haven’t done up to this point, it really is about what we do each day going forward, making the right decisions and controlling what we can control. So, we’ll try to continue to do that."
The Patriots will travel to Kansas City in Week 4 to face the Chiefs at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday.
