NFL COVID-19 testing issue has teams delaying practice; Bengals unaffected so far

All signs pointed to the coronavirus eventually finding its way to the NFL. The MLB and other sport’s leagues that have opted to not do a bubble format have eventually seen an uptick in cases, and the NFL is no different.

It looked like that may be coming to a head this weekend after a host of players received positive test results. However, it may have been a testing issue that resulted in false positives.

According to the New York Post, several NFL teams have had to delay or postpone practice after receiving positive COVID-19 test results for players and staff, but some of them were confirmed to be false positives. All the tests were linked to a New Jersey lab, so the thought that there might be a flaw in the results is there.

“The Bears, Browns, Bills, Steelers and Vikings were also affected. The Bears had nine players/staff members test positive, but later confirmed all of those to be false positives. They moved practice back from the morning until 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. The Browns canceled their Sunday practice out of caution after they had several positive test results and closed their practice facility while it underwent a deep cleaning and disinfectant process,” New York Post’s Zach Braziller wrote.

For now, the Bengals are still a go and were not among the teams affected thus far.

The Bengals were in camp today, training for their season opener against the Chargers on September 13. That said, as noted above, AFC North rival Cleveland canceled their practice after several tests came back positive.

John Ross, who was tested three times to even be back in the Bengals’ facility, is back with the team after being placed on the COVID-19 list. For now, the Bengals haven’t had to use the designation often.

Let’s hope it stays that way as the rest of the league is dealing with the testing issue.