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Coronavirus crisis engulfs NFL, as the Broncos and 49ers become the latest teams impacted

29 November 2020
 Dan Ackermann

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the NFL season into chaos, with the Denver Broncos' quarterbacks sidelined, the San Francisco 49ers left without a home or practice ground and much of the Baltimore Ravens team unavailable, per AP.

Driving the news: The Broncos confirmed in a statement Saturday night that quarterbacks Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles had been identified as "high-risk COVID-19 close contacts" and will follow the NFL's mandatory five-day quarantine, making them ineligible for Sunday's game against New Orleans.

In San Francisco, the Santa Clara County Public Health Department announced new measures to combat a surge in coronavirus cases, including prohibiting from Monday contact sports from holding games and practices for three weeks.

  • The 49ers said in a statement officials are aware of the emergency directive affecting the team. "We are working with the NFL and our partners on operational plans and will share details as they are confirmed," the statement added.

In Baltimore, the Ravens added six more players to their COVID-19 list of players who have either tested positive for the coronavirus or deemed high-risk close contacts of an infected person.

  • The Ravens-Pittsburgh Steelers game originally scheduled for Thanksgiving Day has been rescheduled for a second time, from Sunday to Tuesday, after three Baltimore players tested positive for the virus.

In Pittsburgh, the Steelers announced they had placed running back James Conner on the Reserve/COVID-19 List Saturday. Three other Pittsburgh players were added to the list Friday.

The big picture: The NFL has said it will prohibit all in-person team activities on Monday and Tuesday "in response to the continuous increase in positivity rates throughout the country" and because "a number of players and staff celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday with out-of-town guests."

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.