Goodell calls playing Ravens-Steelers a “remarkable achievement,” but it is risky behavior and should have been a forfeit

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"Health and medical decisions have and always will take precedence over competitive considerations and business interest.”


Roger Goodell as Pinocchio


So, from Thursday to Sunday to Tuesday to Wednesday, the Ravens at Steelers game has been a veritable carousel. If the Steelers had a tough owner/president, he would have insisted on a forfeit since more than 20 Baltimore Ravens players had tested positive for Covid-19. 


Instead, Goodell is just gleeful that the Steelers have to be playing against a team that has had an infestation of the virus,


Commissioner Roger Goodell, meanwhile, called it a "remarkable achievement" for the league to have made it through 12 of its 17 regular-season weeks without canceling a game. He said the league's "collective goal" is to complete the season and added "we are on a path to do that" despite rising infection rates around the country. The league continues to discuss its options for the playoffs, including the possibility of modified local bubbles for teams that advance. Goodell has ruled out a conventional bubble that would put the league under one roof.


Kevin Seifert, “NFL defends decision to play Steelers-Ravens,” ESPN, Dec. 2, 2020


The reality is that this puts the Steelers in an untenable and unfair situation. AS the only undefeated team in the league, the team should be concerned not just about having its players infected by the Ravens, but also by having to play two games in less than five days. 


“There is no active infection …”


The NFL medical people say that the Ravens are free from infection. And just how did that happen?


"We can say with confidence that there is no active infection among the players, coaches and staff on the Ravens sideline today," NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills said during a conference call two hours before kickoff.


All members of the Ravens' traveling party returned negative results during rapid point-of-care tests Wednesday morning. Before that, however, the organization had produced 10 consecutive days of at least one positive test, including at least 14 players. The Ravens were set to take on the Steelers without quarterback Lamar Jackson, among many other key players.


But Sills said the league had used its contact tracing tools, from electronic tracking devices to genomic sequencing to internal video, to project the Ravens' likely course of the transmission based on close contacts of positive individuals. 


The league's model came within one day of accurately predicting the end of the outbreak, Sills said.


"We can really drill down and understand, did the virus pass from Person A to Person B to Person C? Or are these separate strains of transmission that come out of the community?" Sills said. "We take all the pieces of the puzzle together to continue to assemble a more clear picture of the outbreak. ... We've also used a guiding principle of when it's safe to resume and consider playing games, and that is when we know that transmission is understood to have stopped and that we don't have concerns about ongoing individuals turning positive or being at risk. We've done that consistently throughout this outbreak with Baltimore."


Kevin Seifert, ESPN, Dec. 2, 2020


This sounds like the press conferences in which the government told us in February that that situation is “under control.”


More than a quarter-million deaths later, no one believes them. 


And no one should again believe Goodell, whose credibility has been attacked more than a Watergate defendant.


Steelers must play Washington on Sunday


In just three and a half days, the Steelers will have to face the Washington pro franchise, whatever the hell their name is. That is unsafe not because of Covid, but because players really need time to recuperate. 


The Thursday night games do not allow players to do that, but Goodell does not care. As long as he gets the Super Bowl in, he will be considered a genius. 


And as Pinocchio


"Health and medical decisions have and always will take precedence over competitive considerations and business interest," he said.


ESPN


Right. Health and medical will pay your $44 million salary.


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