The Saints, and the rest of the NFL, got some good news on Sunday morning.
Saints fullback Michael Burton, who tested positive for COVID-19 on a test that was taken before the team flew to Detroit on Saturday but didn’t come back until the team had already arrived in Detroit, was re-tested and that test came up negative.
All other Saints players have tested negative as well, so it appears the game against the Lions will go on today as scheduled.
Although false positives on COVID-19 tests are rare, they do happen, and that seems to be what happened with Burton’s test.
It’s unclear whether the NFL would have postponed today’s Saints-Lions game if Burton had been confirmed positive, but two other games have already been postponed this week. The league was very pleased with the lack of positive COVID-19 tests in the first three weeks of the season, but Week Four has provided a stark reminder that pulling off a football season in a pandemic is going to be difficult.