NFL announces that Steelers at Titans is postponed due to COVID outbreak

The NFL announced the first — and hopefully last — postponed game of the 2020 NFL season on Wednesday.

Sunday’s matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans has been postponed following the Titans’ COVID-19 outbreak.

The Titans announced eight members of their organization (three players, five staff) tested positive for the disease on Tuesday, and added a fourth player to the reserve/COVID list on Wednesday when LB Kamalei Correa tested positive.

As it stands now, it seems the game may only be postponed for a day or two as the NFL presses on with the 2020 season. This will mean unanticipated short weeks for both teams, but flexibility was a watch-word for the league heading into the season.

As of this writing the Minnesota Vikings, who hosted the Titans in week 3, are still working remotely. Their game against the Houston Texans is still to be played as scheduled despite the lack of practice for Minnesota.

This is, obviously, the first postponed game of 2020 for the NFL, an issue with which Major League Baseball had to contend throughout their regular season. But unlike baseball, each individual football game requires a lot of preparation and takes a toll on the team. The NFL schedule doesn’t allow for as much flexibility as baseball’s — double-headers are right out of the question — and the league has to hope that this is the only outbreak they suffer.