The Baltimore Ravens have recently disclosed additional alarming information regarding coach and player.
Several Baltimore Ravens players on Wednesday talked about how the NFL’s guidance had occasionally left them feeling frustrated or perplexed as the coronavirus spread throughout the team over the previous week and a half. Others expressed confidence that player safety was given top priority by the league and the team.
After his team lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 19–14 on Wednesday, head coach John Harbaugh expressed his pride in his players for overcoming one of the biggest coronavirus outbreaks in sports history.
More than 30 Ravens players and staff members, including standout quarterback Lamar Jackson, have been placed in isolation since the beginning of last week due to positive test results or high-risk contact. Before Harbaugh and five of his players held virtual postgame news conferences on Wednesday, offering differing perspectives on the outbreak, no one from the organization had spoken publicly in nine days.
Regarding the team’s efforts to ascertain the cause and mode of the virus’s rapid spread, Harbaugh declined to provide specifics.
Harbaugh remarked, “I just think the league did their best.” “We gave it our all. It wasn’t a thousand-run game. Not a single person did. No one did; the league did not. This is something that a thousand bats cannot defeat. However, I believe that our response represented a flawless effort on our part.
Bradley Bozeman, an offensive guard, and Harbaugh both stated that some players who have the virus are experiencing symptoms; however, Bozeman stated he didn’t think any of his teammates were “super sick or anything like that.”
While some NFL players experienced more severe symptoms, many returned to the field within two weeks of testing positive for the coronavirus. According to reports, the virus caused complications for Jaguars running back Ryquell Armstead, who was hospitalized twice; Bills tight end Tommy Sweeney also contracted myocarditis after testing positive for COVID-19.
After the NFL postponed the game three times, Robert Griffin III, the quarterback for the Ravens, started in Jackson’s place on Wednesday. Griffin III stated that players became worried about their health and the health of their families when the coronavirus entered the team facility.
Griffin remarked, “They just tell you to go be a football player.” “But in the end, we don’t want to make our loved ones sick because we have families and friends. Many of our players who tested positive also had positive test results in their families. Things like that are not reported. Thus, when people consider, “Oh. Perhaps guys are just not interested in playing. All they want to do is avoid this. That isn’t the case; we adore football. In addition to wanting to play football, we also want to protect our families.
The Ravens found out on Sunday, Nov. 22, the day the team lost to the Titans in overtime, that running backs J.K. Dobbins and Mark Ingram had tested positive for the coronavirus. The NFL conducted contract tracing, and Baltimore closed the team facility the following morning. Of the players, only one was found to be at high risk of infection.
The Ravens reopened their headquarters for meetings and a walkthrough practice on Monday afternoon. By 11:15 a.m. on Tuesday, the positive test results began to come in. Baltimore ceased in-person operations once more.
