Some in the league office, if being candid, would say that they’d prefer to play the Super Bowl this Sunday, not next Sunday. With more time between games, players, coaches, and essential staff will have more chances to be exposed to the virus.
It becomes more important than ever for everyone associated with the Chiefs and Buccaneers to be extra careful over the next 12 days at the team facility, and to be even more cautious when away from work.
“I think our guys have done a great, great job of being accountable to each other with COVID all year and will continue to do that,” Tampa Bay coach Bruce Arians told reporters on Monday. “We talked about family and friends testing before they ever enter your home, making sure everybody’s tested and being very, very smart about it.”
The possibility of visitors becomes even more significant for the Buccaneers, since the Super Bowl is in Tampa. Friends and family may expect invitations, and the players may have a hard time saying no.
If they can’t say no, at a minimum they need to say, “Get tested.” Players can’t have a swarm of people jeopardizing their ability to remain on the right side of a COVID test. They also don’t need the extra stress and distraction during a week that would entail, in any other season, a hotel stay in the host city.
For the Chiefs, who will remain in Kansas City until next Friday or Saturday, they won’t have people showing up carrying luggage and with perhaps a new variant of the virus. But Chiefs players, coaches, and essential staff still need to be extra careful when not at the facility.
The league has made it clear, repeatedly, that the train won’t stop rolling absent an uncontained outbreak. Thus, if a key player or a quarterback get stung next week (and every day will bring a fresh chance for a positive test), the dynamics of the Super Bowl could change, dramatically.