The NFL made it 12 weeks without any games being officially canceled, but as case counts rise across the country and weeks on the NFL schedule become thin with no more bye weeks available to shuffle games into, their hopes of completing the season without such a situation is growing more perilous by the day.
The Baltimore Ravens have been dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak that’s seen stars such as quarterback Lamar Jackson test positive, among many others, causing their Thanksgiving night game with the divisional rival Pittsburgh Steelers to be initially pushed to Sunday and then, later, to Tuesday night. One day out from that hopeful rescheduled game, the Ravens found themselves still in limbo, having not been able to practice on Monday and unsure of whether they would be able to even travel to Pittsburgh for the game.
On Monday evening, word emerged from ESPN’s Adam Schefter that the game would be pushed back yet again (but still would be attempted to be played), this time on Wednesday night rather than Tuesday.
Ravens-Steelers postponed to Wednesday, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 30, 2020
This comes after Ravens players reportedly held a players-only meeting in which they concluded they didn’t want to play if they couldn’t practice, which is why another day of delay will hopefully get them on the field on Tuesday.
#Ravens players had a players-only meeting recently to express serious concern about playing on Tuesday. They have been adamant about wanting a day to practice https://t.co/3sMsyg52yi
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 30, 2020
From the #Ravens players-only meeting, two main points:
— They want to play.
— Health and safety has to come first. Once source in the meeting asked, “Can’t we have at least two days of negative tests after this outbreak before we are expected to get back on the field?"— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 30, 2020
From a football perspective, the game is extremely important for the Ravens playoff hopes, who enter the game needing a win to keep pace with the Colts and Dolphins in the chase for the final Wild Card spot in the AFC at 7-4 (and one game behind the Browns at 8-3 for second in the division).
However, beyond that, this situation shows the flaw in the league’s plan for this season, which did not add any additional bye weeks to the schedule when it could’ve built in a later break to account for such a possibility — particularly with there being long held concerns about a second wave spiking around the holidays (which, really, ended up being a third spike). Now the NFL finds itself in a position they had hoped to avoid but had not planned strongly enough to ensure they could work around, with the Steelers and Ravens upcoming games also in flux, likely being moved to a weeknight next week as well.
