NFL teams have begun training camps around the country, steadily working their way into a return to football while also trying to thread the needle of doing so during a pandemic without seeing outbreaks among teams.
For this to work, teams must be diligent about testing, tracing, and having protocols in place to mitigate the risk for players. But most importantly, players have to do the right things when they are outside of the facility. Positive tests are inevitable, but the league and teams are hopeful they can isolate those cases and not lead to baseball-like team-wide shutdowns. Whether that’s possible outside of a bubble remains a point of contention, but the league is insistent on giving it a go and teams are taking their protocols very seriously.
Seahawks rookie cornerback Kemah Siverand learned exactly how serious all this is when he was cut this week for reportedly trying to sneak a woman into the team hotel disguised as a player by dressing her in team gear, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.
The #Seahawks cut rookie CB Kemah Siverand this week after he was caught on video trying to sneak a female visitor into the team hotel, per sources.
Clear message on the responsibility everyone has in the NFL’s COVID-19 world: Put the team at risk, suffer the consequences.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 13, 2020
The woman was wearing #Seahawks gear in an attempt to disguise her as a player, I’m told. It did not work.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 13, 2020
Given the situation, this is a serious issue and one teams and players have to call out, because the risk of transmission in a locker room is incredibly high and players bringing in someone from the outside isn’t just selfish, but threatens the entire start of the season. As such, a player without any tenure in the league is not going to get any sort of benefit of the doubt in a situation like this, and now, the undrafted rookie out of Oklahoma State is out of a job before he even got a chance to try and secure his place in the league.
