UPDATE: According to ProFootballTalk, the player in question is fullback Michael Burton, and now, the team is in the midst of mass testing to potentially identify other cases.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the Saints learned late Saturday night that fullback Michael Burton tested positive for COVID-19.
While it’s possible that Burton’s positive is a false positive, the league and the Saints have commenced supplemental testing of players who were in close proximity to Burton. The league’s contact tracing identified three players. Four other players not identified via bracelets worn by the players were sitting near Burton on the plane, including running back Alvin Kamara.
EARLIER: The NFL’s Week 4 schedule has been hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The previously-scheduled game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Tennessee Titans had to get postponed to later this season after an outbreak occurred in Tennessee’s organization including players and staffers. Then on Saturday morning, we learned that New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton tested positive, which led to news that the game between the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs also got postponed.
Now, news dropped just before the calendar flipped to Sunday on the east coast that could potentially put another game on ice for a period of time. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk tweeted that an unidentified member of the New Orleans Saints tested positive ahead of Sunday’s scheduled game with the Detroit Lions. The player is with the team in the Motor City.
Per source, the Saints, who are in Detroit, have a player who has tested positive for COVID-19. Testing currently is occurring of those who were in contact with the player, who was on the flight from New Orleans.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 4, 2020
The game is still scheduled to kick off on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. EST, but it stands to reason that the league could follow the blueprint it laid out with the Patriots and respond to one positive test by pushing it back — the Patriots, for the record, had all of their tests come back negative, per Adam Schefter of ESPN. Prior to this week, the NFL had managed to avoid this sort of wave of positive COVID tests.
