NFL Hit with COVID-19 Testing Irregularities

The Eagles went through with practice Sunday on the heels of a number of COVID-19 testing irregularities around the league.

PHILADELPHIA – The Eagles went through with practice Sunday on the heels of a number of COVID-19 testing irregularities cropping up around the league.

Significant spikes in positive tests were confirmed with Cleveland, Chicago, and Minnesota with many of those already deemed false positives.

Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane told reporters that the league informed him there were over 10 teams affected by the issues.

The New Jersey lab in question, BioReference, is also handling testing for the Eagles.

"Saturday's daily COVID testing returned several positives tests from each of the clubs serviced by the same laboratory in New Jersey," the league said in a statement. "We are working with our testing partner, BioReference, to investigate these results, while the clubs work to confirm or rule out the positive tests.

"Clubs are taking immediate precautionary measures as outlined in the NFL-NFLPA's health and safety protocols to include contact tracing, isolation of individuals and temporarily adjusting the schedule, where appropriate. The other laboratories used for NFL testing have not had similar results."

Before this hiccup testing had been a rousing success to date for the league with over 100,000 virus tests since the start of training camps resulting in a positivity rate of far less than 1 percent. The sudden flood of positives raised a red flag.

The Eagles have had nine different players miss practice dating back to Friday with undisclosed illnesses.

Receivers Jalen Reagor and Deontay Burnett, defensive end Shareef Miller and cornerback Rasul Douglas missed practice on Friday but were all back on Sunday.

Saturday was an off day for the players and five -- running back Corey Clement, rookie WR John Hightower, defensive end Vinny Curry, and defensive tackles Hassan Ridgeway and Anthony Rush -- were all held out Sunday with undisclosed illnesses.

The organization is following the established protocols but haven not confirmed any false positives.

The Eagles haven’t placed anyone on the reserve/COVID-19 reserve list since training camp began.

Three players - right tackle Lane Johnson, swing tackle Jordan Mailata, and linebacker Nate Gerry - started camp on the list but were all activated and are back practicing with the team.

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, and every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SportsMap Radio. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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