Why Dez Bryant's positive COVID test didn't stop Ravens-Cowboys
An hour prior to kickoff of an NFL game previously rescheduled due to a COVID-19 outbreak, a player tested positive for COVID-19. And in an instant, to many on the outside, football in 2020 reached new levels of absurdity.
Dez Bryant was pulled off the field Tuesday during pregame warmups. Thirty minutes before he and the Baltimore Ravens were set to host the Dallas Cowboys, he fired off a string of perplexed, frustrated tweets. He announced his positive test. Then he asked a pertinent question, one that befuddled fans as well.
“Since I tested positive for Covid before the game, do the game stop or go on?”
Since I tested positive for Covid before the game do the game stop or go on? @NFL
— Dez Bryant (@DezBryant) December 9, 2020
To the NFL, the answer was simple. To some viewers, it seemed ridiculous. The game went on without Bryant – but otherwise without a hitch.
Never mind that Bryant had shared a locker room with Ravens teammates.
Never mind that he’d embraced some of his old Cowboys friends.
Never mind that a deleted tweet from a Ravens employee, picturing Bryant hugging one of those friends, was already circulating on social media.
The optics, for a variety of reasons, vexed fans and stirred criticism.
But optics and science don’t always agree. Tuesday’s game, in reality, was no more or less safe after the Ravens learned of Bryant’s positive test than it was before. The decision to play on, therefore, was entirely justifiable.
Why could the game go on?
The pertinent question here is about additional risk. During pregame warmups, and in the locker room, Bryant could have spread the coronavirus to teammates or opponents. Had his COVID-19 case not been detected, he could have infected others immediately before, during or after the game. That’s why he was removed from the field.
But once he was, there is no additional risk on Tuesday night – or at least none connected to Bryant. Even if Bryant did infect teammates, they wouldn’t become contagious for at least another two days. The virus takes time to incubate. The incubation period is usually 3-7 days. Anybody who had contact with Bryant on Tuesday should begin to take some precautions on Thursday or Friday. But there is no reason to alter behavior hours after possible infection on Tuesday night.
The one thing that could change that analysis is if other Ravens players engaged in risky activity alongside Bryant days ago; and if contact tracers believed those other players could have contracted the virus in the same place, at the same time as Bryant.
There is no reason to think that happened. All other Ravens tests have come back negative Tuesday night. So the chances that any of them are capable of transmitting the virus on Tuesday night is extremely slim.
Why was Bryant allowed on the field?
There are other reasonable questions about Bryant’s behavior and the the Ravens’ handling of him. This is one of them. But the timeline is key. The first red flag, according to reports, was an inconclusive test. Bryant took that test Tuesday morning. It came back Tuesday night, at which point officials pulled Bryant off the field. They then administered a rapid point-of-care test, which came back positive.
Got an answer as to why Dez Bryant was allowed to warm up. Per an NFL source, his inconclusive test did not come back until after he had already taken the field. As soon as the test did come back, he was pulled and given a point of care PCR test that returned positive.
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) December 9, 2020
The protocols, at least according to reports, were followed flawlessly. And the protocols seem pretty darn sound. The Ravens caught Bryant’s case as soon as they realistically could. Nobody had any inkling Bryant might be COVID-positive until that Tuesday test came back inconclusive.
Why was Bryant hugging people before the game?
This is the most rational criticism of Bryant, and/or the Ravens, and/or the league. Bryant didn’t know he had COVID-19 when he fraternized with teammates and Cowboys. But that’s no excuse. He still probably shouldn’t have.
In fact, the whole situation is emblematic of why social distancing, and refraining from unnecessary close contact, is important. NFL players and staffers, like people in all walks of life, have been asked to limit face-to-face interactions because they never know when they might have the virus. COVID-19 cases are never detected immediately when they appear.
Was Bryant contagious on Tuesday?
What we don’t know is whether any of this will have consequences. We don’t know exactly how much contact Bryant had with teammates, coaches or opponents. And we don’t even know whether he was capable of spreading the virus. Infected doesn’t equate to infectious.
Most experts believe that a person becomes infectious – capable of spreading the virus – around the same time he or she becomes capable of testing positive. So there’s a chance Bryant was contagious on Tuesday. Even if he was, contagiousness and viral shedding aren’t binary. Because the Ravens caught Bryant’s case so early, there’s a chance he went into isolation before his viral shedding peaked.
Where do the Ravens go from here?
What the NFL and Ravens (and Cowboys) should do, rather than worry about the optics of Tuesday, is address this situation responsibly later in the week.
As mentioned earlier, anybody infected by Bryant on Tuesday would likely start shedding the virus on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday. Beginning Friday, therefore, any close contacts should wear masks and keep their distance whenever possible. Or perhaps even work from home if possible.
The NFL reportedly believes there are no “high-risk close contacts” of Bryant, in part because the Ravens, coming off an extensive outbreak two weeks ago, have been operating under heightened restrictions ever since. So no other players, it seems, will have to go on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. That doesn’t mean everybody else is in the clear.
Is there a chance Bryant’s positive was a false positive?
Possible, but very unlikely. Two different types of tests were administered at two different locations at two different times. Both raised red flags, even if one of the two was inconclusive. It would be exceedingly rare for both to be false alarms.
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