Lorenzo Alexander is retired from the Bills (for now), but he remains a member of the NFL Players Association executive board, and he says players — plus coaches and other staffers — need to be tested for COVID-19 every single day if the season is going to be played safely.
Echoing NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith’s call for daily testing, Alexander told Pat McAfee that the medical experts say daily testing is necessary.
“That’s what our jointly appointed medical committee recommended and that’s what we’re trying to follow,” Alexander said, via the Buffalo News. “It’s more than just the player. It’s the coaches, it’s the front office, the medical personnel, trainers, equipment staff. We have to make sure we are tested daily and we are going home every day. We are not in a bubble. I have to go home and my wife might be working or my kids might be going to school.
“We want as much information as we can so you don’t have someone who is asymptomatic spreading it through the locker room or a position group or to a coach, which I think would be even more impactful. If you lost two or three coaches, it might be impossible to play a game. We don’t have a backup to all those jobs and positions.
“The more information you have, it’s better any time you’re dealing with a disease, especially one we don’t understand. I want to be tested every single day to mitigate the virus as best as we can in these close quarters.”
There have been estimates that it could cost the NFL upwards of $100 million to test every player every day. Of course, it would cost the NFL a lot more than that if an outbreak among players led to the season being canceled.