Titans-Steelers Game Unlikely, Doctor Says

Infectious disease expert Dr. David Aronoff says Tennessee's situation will be a test case for pro sports amid COVID-19.

NASHVILLE – Much remains unknown about the coronavirus outbreak within the Tennessee Titans organization, which prompted franchise officials to suspend all in-person football activity for the time being.

Multiple reports said all in-person team activities would be suspended through Friday. In an interview with AllTitans on Tuesday, Dr. David Aronoff, director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Division of Infectious Disease, said it’s hard to imagine activity resuming by Friday, Saturday or Sunday, when the Titans are scheduled to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers at Nissan Stadium.

“If we think that these players have had close contacts who are likely other players and those close contacts need to be isolated, then it’s really hard to imagine that things will be back to normal by Sunday,” Aronoff told AllTitans on Tuesday. “I would be surprised if there is a game on Sunday that involves the Tennessee Titans.”

According to a press release issued by the Titans, “several” COVID-19 tests have come back positive. In a subsequent statement, the NFL indicated that five staff members and three players tested positive.

Outside linebackers coach Shane Bowen did not travel with the team to Minnesota for the Titans’ game against the Vikings after he was informed of a positive test last Saturday morning.

The Vikings, who also suspended in-person activity Tuesday, have not reported any positive tests. According to ESPN’s Dan Graziano, league contact tracing has identified 48 close contacts with the eight people who tested positive in Tennessee. All eight individuals who have tested positive are asymptomatic as of Tuesday morning, according that report.

Late in training camp, several teams dealt with false positive results due testing irregularities at one of the labs used by the NFL. Individuals who received false positives received a point-of-care rapid test and tested negative.

According to a Titans spokesperson, players, coaches and others received daily PCR nasal swab tests. The team also has access to rapid tests for “certain circumstances.” However, no testing is conducted on game days.

Aronoff expects the NFL and the Titans conferred with medical experts on the likelihood of these tests being false positives.

“Having one or two positives on a team in the absence of symptoms, you’d want to really be sure that those are true positives. … if you did an antigen [rapid] test, confirm that with a molecular [nasal swab] test,” Aronoff said. “But when you have multiple people positive at the same time of screening, then it’s really important to treat that really seriously.”

Public health officials and experts, such as Aronoff, have stressed in recent months that COVID-19 tests only indicate an individual’s status at the particular time in which the test was administered.

Aronoff said the NFL and other professional sports leagues have done a “really good job of positioning themselves to limit the ability for a major transmission event to occur.” The reason strict precautions have been put into place is to quell these exact types of situations.

He added it’s too early to tell if the Titans’ outbreak will grow, possibly adversely affecting the Vikings. No matter what happens, though, the world will soon learn how quickly NFL teams can get in front of outbreaks.

“I think we are going to learn a lot in the near future about whether this is somewhat of a best-case scenario where players and personnel do not get sick and a few people test positive,” Aronoff said, “or if this is the beginning of a potential worst-case scenario, where someone gets seriously ill or a lot of people end up getting infected, which then creates the possibility that more people get infected.”