Some of you were a little confused by the recent item regarding the league’s policy regarding swine flu.
So let’s see if we can confuse you some more.
Recently, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told the Associated Press that, in order to utilize roster exemptions, “If a club has at least six players unable to participate
as the result
of confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu, it can receive roster
exemptions for those players and promote players from its own practice
squad to replace them. A club can receive a max of 8 such exemptions.
They must be medically confirmed cases of swine flu.”
The inconsistency arises from the reference to “confirmed or suspected” cases of swine flu, with the requirement that the cases of swine flu be “medically confirmed.” Aiello provided us with further clarification on Thursday.
“The memo does say ‘confirmed or suspected’ to allow for a medical judgment in a scenario
such as this,” Aiello explained via e-mail. “You have 2-3 confirmed cases of swine flu early in the
week. The test takes a couple of days to confirm. On Friday or
Saturday, 3 or 4 more players have flu-like symptoms. At that point, we
have to give our medical people the flexibility to recommend that the
roster exemptions be given due to the likelihood that those players
later in the week also have swine flu even though it has not been
officially confirmed.”
So, in other words, a case of swine flu can be “medically confirmed” even if it’s only “suspected,” as long as it’s “suspected” by a doctor.
And we’re hopeful that the doctors — and the league — will err on the side of providing teams with relief if there’s a close question as to whether enough players have swine flu. With only practice-squad players available to replace members of the active roster who are stricken, it’s not as if a team like the Browns will derive any unfair advantage from getting a handful of one-day roster exemptions.
Bellicheat is studying this policy right now and look for an epidemic to hit the Patriots soon.
I just want to make it clear…WE have NOTHING to do with SWINE flu!
Mike, after you “cut and paste” a quote you should probably go back and edit the font. You know, for the purposes of conformity, clarity, professionalism, aesthetics…
7:04am is a little early to be hitting up the schnapps buddy
This becomes even more interesting since there was a large percentage of swine flu cases proven to be falsely diagnosed over the summer. What happens if we find out that the NLF players are falsley diagnosed and the outcome of that game is challenged? The hysteria of the swine flu needs to be over with.
Florio, could you further define the term “relief”? Could a team possibly seek relief by having another team play the rest of their schedule? That would be the ONLY way the Browns have of securing another win.
Belichick (or any other coach) would have to be pretty stupid to try to take advantage of this policy. Sit down active players to promote practice squad guys to play in their places? What’s the benefit of that? Who wants to play poorer players with less experience?
This is a non-issue.