Professional and college sports are being ravaged by COVID-19 outbreaks that are either shutting down teams, delaying games, or leaving teams severely weakened.
Count the Texans among those crippled by the fast-spreading virus and the NFL’s protocols.
A day after losing three key players to the Reserve/COVID-19 List, which included leading receiver Brandin Cooks, the Texans added six more players to the list Thursday ahead of Sunday’s home game against the Los Angeles Chargers. The Texans now have a total of 23 players on COVID list as of Thursday night, which means they could be without several key players when the Chargers come into NRG Stadium.
“Unfortunately, with COVID-19, it’s been a bunch of guys that it’s been affecting,” Texans coach David Culley said. “Basically, you just go business as usual and just kind of stay the course and not let it become a disruption or a distraction with your team. Basically, what has happened is it’s been a great opportunity for the guys that haven’t been playing to play.”
The 3-11 Texans, who are coming off a 30-16 win at Jacksonville, could be without Cooks and as many as four starting offensive linemen with Tytus Howard, Justin Britt, Justin McCray and Lane Taylor all receiving positive tests. Some of the players could be ready for Sunday if they are able to get a negative test in the next two days.
But the current players understand they can’t count on that. Right now, the Texans have eight available offensive linemen going into Sunday’s game.
The Texans have been forced to transition much of their game preparation this week to virtual to protect the players that are available.
“The way I’m going to approach it is the same as I approached my other three starts and how I approached playing in college, too, making sure I watch all of the certain third-down packages, short-yardage goal line and doing my own scouting report,” said offensive lineman Jimmy Morrissey. “It stays the status quo.
“It just stinks that this is where we’re at and we have to do it on virtual, but it is what it is and we’ve got to make sure we can play on Sunday.”