There is determination in the face of adversity and then there is natural stupidity.
Right now, the NFL is everything in the latter.
The Baltimore Ravens put six other players on the COVID-19 reserve list on Saturday, leaving them with 38 active players. San Francisco’s 49ers became homeless after Santa Clara County banned all tactile sports for the next 3 weeks. And the Denver Broncos don’t have a quarterback (yes, you read it right, none) for Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints after Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles had “high-risk” contact with Jeff Driskel, who tested positive for COVID on Thursday.
Still, the NFL continues to claim that everything remains the same, insisting that games be played.
After nearly 15 years of being almost obsessed with protecting his beloved shield, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell makes a decision: is it time to tell Satan the integrity of the game?
“I’m not the type to complain, but the NFL can’t send us all to a game without QB. The maximum position for an offensive. We don’t even have a backup,” tweeted the Broncos’ closed wing, Noah Fant, on Saturday night.
Goodell warned the league before the start of the season that there would be competitive disadvantages, that some groups would face worse cases than others, but a big difference between scamming the last-minute free week and the clown display in Denver on Sunday.
This goes beyond the Broncos who have no chance of winning the game. By refusing to make concessions to reality, the NFL necessarily puts its finger on the ladder of the race for seed No. 1 in NFC and, perhaps, the conference, position in the Super Bowl.
The Saints have been leading the Los Angeles Rams and Green Bay Packers lately throughout a game. Now, maybe New Orleans beats Denver with all its power, anyway. But we’ll never know for sure because the Broncos will line up the equivalent of a school offense.
If the Saints end up being seeded number one, the only one to get a goodbye in this year’s first circular will be with an asterisk. If they move to Tampa Bay, home of this year’s Super Bowl, there will be many who will set them aside and say, “Yes, but
And if the Saints win, their name in the Super Bowl will remain a sham, it’s not their fault.
Is that what the NFL wants?Take the hard paintings that have been made through so many other people in the league just to go so far and make a joke?
Because that’s what the NFL is doing by pretending it can still be more cunning than COVID.
Spending a full season in the middle of a pandemic was going to be a cube game. Doing it in the classic 17-week window is almost impossible. The NFL cannot play in a bubble and, although cases are higher across the country, it was inevitable that it would also wreak havoc in the league.
Yes, some groups have been less guilty than others, and the NFL would possibly seek to set an example of that. The Broncos quarterbacks weren’t dressed in the mask as they have been. The Ravens’ strength and conditioning trainer has not reported his COVID symptoms and has reportedly been inconsistent dressed in his mask and the tracking device required throughout the league.
But the NFL wasn’t the best either.
That allowed the New England Patriots to fly to Kansas City and play the Chiefs last month after Cam Newton tested Array knowing full well that some of the players had had close contact with the quarterback. In fact, cornerback Stephon Gilmore tried it out the day after the game.
It’s not about showing who’s right. Or to say that a virus that killed about 270,000 Americans didn’t get the most out of the NFL.
The purpose, the purpose, is to end the season.
And for now, the most productive way to do this is to take a break or at least this open week between the convention championships and the Super Bowl and have an 18th week to catch up on the mandatory games.
The NFL season is on the brink, but of course, let the NFL go ahead and keep pretending you’re in control. See how it works.
Follow USA TODAY sports columnist Nancy Armor on Twitter @nrarmour.