As Titans deal with COVID-19 outbreak, healthy Miami Dolphins fortify their ‘bubble’
As the NFL’s first true COVID-19 outbreak is unfolding hundreds of miles to the north, the Miami Dolphins — like all 32 teams — are monitoring closely, and responding accordingly.
Five Tennessee Titans players have tested positive for coronavirus, prompting the league to postpone this weekend’s Titans-Steelers game.
Meanwhile, the NFL has handed out more than a million dollars in fines to coaches eschewing the NFL’s sideline mask policy and the Raiders are under investigation after several players were photographed maskless at an indoor charity event.
Add to the unease: Florida cases are again ticking up as the state as significantly relaxed — if not eliminated altogether — rules on masks, bars, restaurants and nightclubs.
On Wednesday, Miami-Dade reported 482 new cases and four new deaths, while in Broward those figures were 213 and 10, respectively. In all, Miami-Dade and Broward have reported nearly a quarter-million cases and 4,690 deaths.
What’s more, the state’s seven-day positivity rate remains over 10 percent — more than twice the national average — and is beginning to tick up again per Johns Hopkins’ Coronavirus Resource Center
And yet, at the risk of jinxing the team living and working in the middle of it, the Dolphins’ COVID-19 defenses are holding (as of now).
After putting 16 players on the league’s reserve/COVID-19 list during training camp, the team has not had to use that designation on any player in some five weeks.
“I was actually surprised [by the Titans’ positives],” said linebacker Jerome Baker. “With all the protocols, with all the things that we have to go through just to stay safe, for me, I’m not going to say it’s easy, but now we’ve adjusted to it. You definitely have the tools to stay safe. I’m pretty confident that we won’t have anything like that here. You’ve just got to be safe, be cautious of everything you do, on the field and off the field.”
When training camp began in late July, South Florida was the No. 1 region of concern for the NFLPA, but we have since been surpassed by Green Bay, Houston, Kansas City, Nashville and five other NFL cities. The COVID-19 concentration in Green Bay is an alarming 66.6 cases per 100,000 people.
How have the Dolphins done it? By acting like they’re in a bubble, even though they’re not.
Linebacker Elandon Roberts said “it’s been a minute” since he ate dinner out or went into a store, due in part to the tightly condensed offseason.
“We do a great job of dealing it like a bubble,” he said. “We know the responsibility we have to our families and our Miami Dolphins family, with the personnel in the building, with our coaches, with our teammates. With us, we’ve still been on — come to practice, go home entirely and stuff like that.”
When asked about Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to open up the state, Roberts replied:
“You can’t control what goes on outside. We’re just still following our protocol here in the building. You can look at it as a job. We look at it as family. We’re still doing what we first came in doing — wash your hands, masks at all time, contract tracers. ... We’re going to have to continue doing it with more and more opening back up.”
Added Dolphins coach Brian Flores: “It’s a reminder that we can’t let our guard down. We can’t get complacent. I know [Titans coach] Mike [Vrabel] well. I’m sure he wasn’t, and they’re not. We know how quickly the virus can spread, I think everyone knows and understands that. We have to be vigilant in enforcing the masks and the protocols. We just have to be diligent in following the protocols. That’s the reminder that we talked about this morning as a team. When you have three, four, five, six weeks where things are going good, human nature takes over, and you let your guard down a little bit. We can’t do that. It’s just a reminder that we’ve got to continue to be diligent. I’ll do a better job at that. I think every coach around the league is probably having the exact same conversation. I think it’s probably the case in all 31 other meetings this morning. It’s unfortunate, and you don’t want to see that with any team. I know how hard the guys work and how much they put into this. You don’t want to see that from any team. It’s a situation that we all have to learn from.”
