Kansas City Chiefs Biggest Opponent Looms Large – The Kansas City Chiefs are the best team in the NFL, and it’s not particularly close. While the win against the Patriots proved disappointing, for the offense, it once again demonstrated that Chiefs are a complete team who can win in a variety of ways, even on a bad day. The defense is coming on strong, despite having pretty poor luck, in the injury department, thus far. Rather than breathing a sigh of relief, at the return of Bashaud Breeland, Chiefs may be scratching their heads as to how to get him on the field, with stellar play from Charvarius Ward and Rashaad Fenton. Chiefs should dispatch the Raiders with ease. That leaves them a certain amount of room to focus on their primary obstacle in the race for the top seed: COVID-19.
Chiefs have dealt with infection in-house, in Jordan Ta’amu and from an opponent, on the New England Patriots. It’s easy enough to avoid contact, once a player tests positive. The challenge remains the window in which a player contracts the illness and can potentially transmit it, before their test comes back. There have been some indications that asymptomatic carriers are less likely to transmit the virus. However, studies show that viral loads in the noses, throats, and lungs of asymptomatic carriers are essentially identical to those of symptomatic carriers. While those without symptoms are less apt to cough, or sneeze, they are just as capable of spreading the virus. Without symptoms to alert a carrier to the onset, teams must rely on tests. A fast, less accurate test is administered, as well as a more invasive more accurate test, that takes a day or so to come back, but players could still potentially become carriers between the time they test and the time they leave the facility.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the incubation period for COVID-19 is between 2 and 14 days. That basically means that a player could become infected, and test positive relatively quickly, or as long as two weeks later. With that in mind, the safest course of action would be to quarantine, not only those who test positive, but others with close contacts to them. Due to the physical nature of football, it’s almost impossible to do that because a single positive test, say, to a QB, would likely wipe out 10+ players. Under current NFL protocols, the very real possibility exists that infections could manifest during games and spread to other players. Fortunately, there’s no evidence of that happening yet, despite a match-up between a disease ravaged Tennessee Titans Team and the healthy Minnesota Vikings. However the outbreak afflicting the Titans is a sobering reminder that infection could potentially spread in practice, as well.
None of this is really catching the NFL by surprise. They had always hoped for the best, but infections were inevitable. Some flexibility exists, within the schedule, but the NFL is not equipped to handle outbreaks on several teams simultaneously. It’s hard to imagine things getting bad enough for the season to be canceled outright, but the possibility of forfeiture of games, due to the inability to play them is very real for teams. The league addressed this, recently, in a strongly worded memo which also threatened fines and loss of draft picks for teams failing to follow protocol. For the Chiefs, containing current infections and avoiding future infections is absolutely critical. No matter how talented the roster may be, or excellent the coaching, neither can save you from having to forfeit a game, if you can’t safely play it.
The Chiefs are a well managed team. I fully expect that they’ve been complying with all NFL protocols. You would like to think that would be enough, but it may not. K.C. is currently practicing with masks, because Jordan Ta’ Amu’s infection puts them under enhanced protocols. Once they get healthy, and that’s no longer required, it would probably be wise to continue to wear masks or face shields. One protocol which Chiefs should immediately address is the post-game mingling. It may be good sportsmanship to shake hands and shoot the breeze with the opponent, but, in the midst of a pandemic, it seems ill-advised. Kansas City is rolling, coming out with wins, even on bad days. If Chiefs make it through the next 11-12 days, without any new cases, they’ll have weathered the storm. Even if things go well, Chiefs players and staff must remain vigilant. Now is not the time to take a loss to complacency.
Ransom Hawthorne — ArrowheadOne
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