Titans’ Positive COVID Tests ‘Good Reminder’ For Patriots Of Virus Threat

The Tennessee Titans’ eight positive coronavirus tests earlier this week served as a reminder to the rest of the NFL of the ever-present threat of COVID-19.

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Wednesday his team has remained “vigilant” in its efforts to avoid contracting and spreading the virus, but that the situation in Tennessee will serve as motivation to maintain that resolve.

“It’s a very, obviously, a good reminder for all of us of the situation that we’re in,” Belichick said in a video conference. “And regardless of what we’ve done or haven’t done up to this point, it really is about what we do each day going forward.”

The Patriots are one of just a handful of NFL teams that have not placed a single player on the reserve/COVID-19 list since the start of training camp.

Belichick said the team’s COVID prevention protocols continue to evolve as the season progresses and feedback from players, coaches and staff members is received.

“We monitor everything every day,” Belichick said. “We don’t just do it when there’s a problem or something comes up somewhere else. We do it on a daily basis and make everyone — because this is everybody; it’s not just players, it’s players and coaches and staff and everybody else — make everyone aware. If we can do something better, then we talk to them about how we can do it better.

“So we try to monitor it the best we can, and we, I think, are pretty vigilant with — really, all of us; it’s not any one person — all of us keeping an eye on things. If anybody sees something that’s not the way we talked about it or maybe something that’s a little off or that we need to take a better look at, then we do that. We’ve had that situation come up multiple times as things have changed, as we went through the different phases of training camp, as we got into the regular-season schedule and then we traveled.

“There have been a variety of changes in our scheduling or in the way we’re located or where or how we’re doing things that have necessitated some type of modification or adjustment, so we continue to monitor that and do that.”

The Patriots played their first two home games without fans at Gillette Stadium. They have yet to announce whether any will be allowed in for next week’s matchup with the Denver Broncos.

New England is set to face the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium.

A ninth member of the Titans organization tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total to four players and five staffers. Tennessee’s team facility remained closed as of Wednesday morning, but its Sunday afternoon matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers has not been postponed.

UPDATE (11:10 a.m. ET): The Titans-Steelers game now has been postponed, according to a report from ESPN’s Dianna Russini.