The Kansas City Chiefs will not depart for Tampa until Saturday, opting to remain at home to prepare during Super Bowl week given the lack of on-site demands due to COVID-19 protocols.
The Chiefs already knew they’d be without the services of star left tackle Eric Fischer for the Super Bowl after he suffered an Achilles injury in the AFC title game, but two more players, receiver DeMarcus Robinson and backup center Daniel Kilgore, are in the league’s health and safety protocols currently due to contact tracing stemming from a barber the team brought in who tested positive.
The #Chiefs have placed C Daniel Kilgore and WR Demarcus Robinson on the COVID-19 reserve list, but neither player is a positive case, source said. If they keep testing negative, both should play in the Super Bowl.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 1, 2021
A barber’s positive COVID test has sidelined two #Chiefs players from practice leading up to Super Bowl LV — and other players who were waiting in line for haircuts Sunday ended up with a close shave. https://t.co/hnR56PEZMm
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 2, 2021
The barber had apparently tested negative for five straight days but an inconclusive test from a close contact required a day of test to be cleared. For some reason, he was allowed to get one and a half cuts in before that test came back, with a positive result, and he was pulled while cutting Kilgore’s hair, as the Chiefs very well dodged a major incident with 20 players, including Patrick Mahomes, scheduled to get a cut from him that day.
Chiefs’ C Daniel Kilgore was mid haircut when the barber was notified that he was Covid positive. Kilgore and the barber both were wearing masks. Kilgore has to stay home this week, but has tested negative and can return Saturday, fly with the team and play Sunday, per source. https://t.co/oWfjJX1qIr
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 3, 2021
It is a reminder that negative tests do not automatically mean a person will stay negative, and one would’ve thought we would have learned by now that you at least need to wait for that day’s test to come back, no matter what previous tests have shown, before you let someone into the facility. For now, Robinson and Kilgore have been testing negative and should that continue all week, they would be able to play. That will hopefully continue to happen and, of lesser importance but still, to him, probably important, hopefully Kilgore has been able to get that half of a haircut fixed. He at least has a good sense of humor about the situation.
https://twitter.com/DanielKilgore67/status/1357084642378211328
