Rams try to contain COVID outbreak, Seahawks 1 of only 4 NFL teams with no current cases

Pete Carroll has been preaching it since the beginning of the pandemic. That’s now nearly two full years ago.

The 70-year-old coach has been championing the competitive advantages his Seahawks could enjoy by avoiding positive COVID tests.

It might pay off this all-important week.

The Rams have put 13 players on the reserve/COVID-19 list the last three days, among the 66 NFL players to go on the list since Monday. Los Angeles had nine more added to the COVID list Tuesday. Starting running back Darrell Henderson and star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. are among those in L.A. sidelined indefinitely.

The Seahawks? They put none on the COVID-19 list Monday and Tuesday, per the league’s official transactions.

The Seahawks (5-8) will try to keep their slim playoff hopes alive Sunday in Inglewood, California, when they play the Rams (9-4), whoever is available for them by then.

Seattle is one of four NFL teams without a player currently on the reserve/COVID-19 list.

Overthecap.com estimated there is $198 million in salary-cap money on the COVID list across 28 teams this week.

Carroll’s team has still had just one positive COVID case since the start of the pandemic before the 2020 season began. Tight end Gerald Everett became Seattle’s only confirmed case in late September. He missed two games this season.

Not that Carroll is doing any victory laps about that.

It’s a long week. This is a seemingly endless pandemic.

“We are holding on right now,” Carroll said of Seattle’s COVID-19 situation.

The Rams won at NFC West-leading Arizona Monday night without five starters that were on the COVID list. Henderson, offensive tackle Rob Havenstein, tight end Tyler Higbee and cornerbacks Jalen Ramsey and Dont’e Deayon missed the Cardinals game.

Tuesday, Beckham, Los Angeles starting safety Jordan Fuller, extra defensive back Terrell Burgess and tight end Brycen Hopkins — who filled in for Higbee in the Arizona game the night before — went on the COVID list the day after playing in Arizona.

Rams coach Sean McVay told L.A reporters Tuesday the team’s facility was closed and the all work would be done remotely for two days. He said the rest of the week was still to be determined.

“We’re in intensive protocols,” McVay told reporters. “This has definitely been the most uniquely challenging situation we’ve dealt with with COVID over the last two years, no doubt about it, specific to our team the amount of people that are affected, both players and staff.

“The scary thing about all this to me is every single person is vaccinated that we’re talking about. That’s the thing that’s the most concerning about all of this is that everybody has done exactly what they could.”

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told teams before this season that any if game in 2021 is postponed and can’t be rescheduled because of a COVID outbreak among unvaccinated players on one team’s roster, that team will forfeit and no players from either team will be paid for that week. Goodell’s memorandum this summer to every team also dictated the team with the outbreak will be responsible for all financial losses incurred and could be subject to discipline from the commissioner.

Teams have 53 players on active rosters, and up to 16 more they can call up from practice squads. So the Rams weren’t as of Tuesday night near danger of not being able to field a team for Sunday’s game. And, again, McVay said all on the COVID list in Los Angeles are vaccinated.

The Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings and Washington are with the Rams in the NFL’s intensive COVID mitigation protocols.

What does that mean?

The league and its players’ union agreed that teams in intensive protocols will conduct virtual-only meetings, limited outdoor gatherings, increased physical distancing, mask wearing at all times, including for players during practice and eliminating group meals.

That’s what Carroll has so far succeeded in avoiding for his Seahawks.

The 70-year-old coach has been championing mask wearing, testing and vaccinating against the coronavirus for his team and the general populace since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020. He held testing events last year and vaccination events this year at the team’s headquarters in Renton for players’ families, friends and guests.

Last week, the Seahawks hosted a vaccine-booster drive at their Virginia Mason Athletic Center. Carroll said Monday he didn’t have the numbers of players who opted to get a third vaccination shot. It wasn’t all.

On Sunday, the Seahawks beat the Texans in mostly-maskless NRG Stadium in Houston. After the game Seattle’s coaches, players and staff got some stares while wearing masks on their ways to the team bus and airport for the flight home.

Carroll said Monday guarding against complacency and players letting down their guards now almost two full years into the fight against the pandemic is the biggest challenge currently for him, the Seahawks — and the entire world.

“That’s it, man. That’s the whole issue, worldwide. And people get fatigued from it. We just can’t. We can’t let that happen,” Carroll said. “And even though everyone is human and you get worn down by the reminders and the constant ... because it is, it’s stressful when you have to be continually reminded and thoughtful of something that you wouldn’t normally do.

“And it wears on you. We try to avoid it. We look for ways to get out of it. We hear conversations about it all the time. That’s why the national clamor, you know. It is about being diligent. The diligence comes from the constant reminders and the discipline that it takes to stick with it.”

His aim all along has been for player safety to create a competitive advantage.

The rest of this Rams game week, for a contest Seattle must win, could reveal if that work pays off.

“I like to say I do a great job of that. I’ve got to do better,” Carroll said.

“Here we go, we are in the last month of the season, and we’ve got a shot to make it through. I don’t know what’s going to happen after (Monday).”

Carroll chuckled ruefully.

“Everybody has to be continually reminded — and stop griping about it,” he said.

“Stop griping about being healthy, and helping other people be healthy, you know what I mean? I don’t get that. That’s beyond me. “It’s so far away from personal rights. I don’t get it. We are just trying to stay healthy.

“We are going to try to continue to do a great job of it, and hopefully just get through another day. It’s just one day at a time. It’s as constant as anything we’ve ever been around. “And we’ve got to do better. I’ve got to do a better job. I’ve got to remind guys more so.”