The NFL Really Allowed a COVID-Positive Player to Hug Patrick Mahomes 36 Hours Ago, Huh?

The NFL, in its infinite wisdom, allowed the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs to play a football game on Monday night after Cam Newton's positive COVID test. Which was certainly a risk, but apparently one the league was perfectly fine taking. Allow the very smart Bill Barnwell to explain:

Well, wouldn't you know it? The Patriots had two additional players test positive this morning, one of them All-Everything cornerback Stephon Gilmore. Two Tennessee Titans have also come back positive, all but ending chances of them playing this weekend. A Las Vegas Raider is in the same camp. So that's three teams dealing with issues — for now — and none are playing each other.

Things are not going great. And if you don't believe me, believe all the serious NFL reporters who quote tweet news with "good news" or "bad news." The latter is winning handily this morning, like the Joe Montana 49ers against an inferior team in the Super Bowl. It's a bit lopsided.

While the Chiefs have thankfully returned zero positive tests this morning, they are nowhere near out of the woods. The NFL has shown either ignorance or indifference to how this disease is spread and as a result finds itself waiting with bated breath to find out the full scope of its incompetence.

But we don't have to wait to see the slapdick way all this has manifested. We have, right here, a picture of Gilmore hugging Patrick Mahomes postgame. This was less than 36 hours ago.

That is not what you want. It's not what anyone wants. And it certainly could have been avoided.

Look, we're all doing the human thing and hoping that Mahomes and all others who came into contact with Gilmore and Newton and any other contagious player does not contract the illness. Yet the evidence is damning. The Patriots took a second damn COVID plane to Kansas City. Gilmore was one of the 20 or so on it.

Perhaps it's time to step back — WAY LATE MIND YOU — and realize that flying a second plane should have been a sign things needed to be canceled. Like, let's not do that again.

Make no mistake. These are unprecedented times with unprecedented challenges. That's just more reason not to make self-inflicted mistakes.