Maskless Raiders players investigated following charity event; Titans plan to play amid outbreak

The NFL has postponed Sunday’s Titans-Steelers game after a fourth Tennessee player tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the team’s overall total to nine infections. 

‘The Steelers-Titans game, originally scheduled for Sunday at 1pm ET, will be rescheduled to allow additional time for further daily COVID-19 testing and to ensure the health and safety of players, coaches and game day personnel,’ the NFL said in a statement. ‘Details on the new game date and time on either Monday or Tuesday will be announced as soon as possible.’ 

The announcement was made after several Las Vegas Raiders players attended a charity event held by teammate Darren Waller that violated Nevada rules for the coronavirus pandemic and might have broken NFL regulations.

Rules from the NFL and NFLPA limit what players are allowed to do away from team facilities this season to try to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Players are banned from attending any event that “violates local and state restrictions.”

The Darren Waller Foundation held the fundraising event at the DragonRidge Country Club in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson on Monday night. The money being raised was intended to help young people overcome drug and alcohol addiction. 

Players were seen on video without masks during the indoor event while talking and mingling with guests, who also weren´t wearing masks.

The City of Henderson fined the country club $2,000 on Tuesday for four violations of the Nevada governor’s COVID-19 emergency directives, including people not wearing masks and more than 50 people at the event. The club has 30 days to pay the fine or dispute it. 

Among the players in attendance were quarterbacks Derek Carr and Nathan Peterman, tight ends Jason Witten, Foster Moreau and Derek Carrier, receiver Zay Jones, cornerback Nevin Lawson, and Waller.

‘We obviously take responsibility for this,’ Raiders owner Mark Davis told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. ‘You don’t like seeing this. I don’t know that it’s actually been built into our memories that you have to wear a mask. Our organization takes it very seriously.’

An NFL spokesman did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment. 

Video from the event shows Carr throwing a football to one of the contributors seated in the crowd. And like seemingly everyone else at the event, neither were wearing masks or gloves during the exchange. 

This is the latest possible infraction of the COVID-19 protocols by the Raiders early this season. A person familiar with the punishments said coach Jon Gruden was fined $100,000 and the team fined $250,000 because he failed to wear his mask properly on the sideline during a Week 2 game against the New Orleans Saints. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the league hadn’t made any announcement.

The team is also being investigated for allowing an unauthorized team employee in the locker room after the Saints game.

Gruden also said after the Saints game that he had the coronavirus in July and stressed that the team is taking it seriously.

The charity event came the night before the NFL announced that the Titans and Minnesota Vikings had to suspend in-person activities because three Titans players and five personnel tested positive for the coronavirus following a game between the teams on Sunday. 

‘Both clubs are working closely with the NFL and the (players union), including our infectious disease experts, to evaluate close contacts, perform additional testing and monitor developments,’ the league said in a statement. 

Tennessee is scheduled to host Pittsburgh in a matchup of two of the league’s seven remaining undefeated teams on Sunday, and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said his team has been ‘given a mandate’ to prepare as if the game will be played on time – even if the Titans are unable to practice.

‘We’re going to trust the medical experts,’ Tomlin said. ‘If they deem it safe for us to proceed, we’re going to go down there with the intention of playing and playing to win.’  

The NFL had played three weeks without a COVID-19 outbreak. Now, the Titans will become the first significant in-season test of the league’s virus protocols. 

The Titans placed a pair of key players, defensive captain and lineman DaQuan Jones and long snapper Beau Brinkley, on the reserve/COVID-19 list later Tuesday.

The Vikings released a statement saying they had not received any positive results from their testing after Sunday’s game and they followed NFL protocol by closing their facility immediately. The Minnesota complex will remain closed at least through Wednesday.

Minnesota is scheduled to visit Houston (0-3) on Sunday.

‘All decisions will be made with health and safety as our primary consideration,’ the NFL said. ‘We will continue to share updates as more information becomes available.’

If they kick off Sunday, the Titans will have spent three days in virtual, video meetings with possibly only a walk-through Saturday. The prospect of a team facing a competitive disadvantage because of the virus was not a surprise to Tomlin.

‘Once we left the station and we got all teams into a training camp-like setting, we as a collective, meaning the National Football League, acknowledged that this COVID environment could be challenging to that,’ Tomlin said. ‘So we all proceeded with that understanding.’

Titans coach Mike Vrabel is scheduled to talk to reporters Wednesday morning.

‘I just wanna play,’ Titans starting left guard Rodger Saffold tweeted.

Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to teams Tuesday noting the protocols set up by the league and the players union are being followed. Those who tested positive will be isolated, monitored and offered medical care, and family members also are offered testing. Officials and others who worked the game will be tested.

‘This is not unexpected; as Dr. Sills and others have emphasized, there will be players and staff who will test positive during the season,’ Goodell wrote in the memo obtained by The Associated Press, referencing the NFL’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills. ‘We are exploring in more detail the nature of the close contacts to determine where they occurred (locker room, flights, etc.), and identify any additional learnings that can be shared with all clubs.’

Goodell asked teams to look at what they’ve done to limit contact, especially when traveling and within position groups, and to review how they bring in players for tryouts. He noted the test results affirm the need to follow health and safety protocols ‘to the fullest extent.’

The NFL has been fining coaches and teams when coaches have violated league rules requiring face coverings during games.

Steelers defensive tackle Cam Heyward posted on Twitter that if the game were postponed, players would be compromised in their preparation for the following week.

‘This is wild but this is the world we live in now,’ Heyward wrote.

Titans outside linebackers coach Shane Bowen did not travel with the team to Minneapolis following a virus test result Saturday. Vrabel said Monday that Bowen was not with the team.

Rookie offensive lineman Isaiah Wilson, the Titans’ top draft pick out of Georgia, also has been on the reserve/COVID-19 list since September 6.

The Titans, like other NFL teams, use devices that detect whenever someone is within six feet of another device and records how long they are that close together. That means the league has data on everyone’s interactions from inside the team headquarters to the practice field, an airplane, inside a hotel and at a stadium.

That information should help the Titans and the infectious disease experts know which players and coaches were at risk. The closure of Tennessee’s facility should also help limit further spread of the virus.

The Titans are due to have about 7,000 fans in Nissan Stadium on Sunday as local restrictions on large gatherings have been eased. That number is set to expand to about 8,500 on October 11 for a game against Buffalo and up to 10,000 on October 18, when Houston is scheduled to visit.