The Saints learned late Saturday night that fullback Michael Burton tested positive for COVID-19. It threw the team into a whirlwind that, despite Burton’s positive turning out to be a false result, disrupted the team’s routine significantly the night before its game against the Lions.
Running back Alvin Kamara, one of multiple players who had to be tested on Saturday night due to exposure to Burton, told PFT after the game that he slept intermittently on Saturday night while waiting for news.
“I couldn’t go to sleep when I needed to or wanted to. . . . I was kind of in and out of sleep,” Kamara said. “I went to sleep at like 1:15 [a.m.], woke up at like 3:00. Checked my phone. Went back to sleep. Woke up at about 4:30. Went back to sleep. Woke up at around six-something. And then I woke up at 9:00 and I was going to get ready. I didn’t see no information on my phone. So I was like, ‘All right I guess we’re good.’
When would Kamara have otherwise gone to sleep on the night before a game?
“WAY earlier than that,” he said.
Kamara added that the situation didn’t affect the team, and that it didn’t contribute to the quick 14-0 hole into which the Saints fell.
“It is what it is,” Kamara said. “Because of what’s going on, it’s something we gotta deal with. . . . There’s not gonna be a delayed start to the game if that happens. I think everybody was ready, we approached it the right way . . . We all did what we had to do today.”
Yes they did, with a 35 point outburst sandwiched between 14- and 15- point runs by the Lions. In the end, the situation didn’t keep the Saints from winning and, to the relief of anyone who’d bet on them giving four points, covering.