Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Newton Tests Positive For COVID-19; Patriots-Chiefs Postponed - 10/3/2020

Episode Date: October 3, 2020

SPECIAL EDITION: New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, the Patriots Week Four matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs. Host Mike D’Abate provides the latest details on what this means for the game, as well as the health and welfare of both teams.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get $10 off your first order.MyBookieINVEST IN YOUR INTUITION. USE PROMO CODE LOCKEDON AND DOUBLE YOUR FIRST DEPOSIT. NEW PLAYERS GET UP TO $1,000 IN FREE PLAY - DESIGNED TO ADD MORE EXCITEMENT TO THE SPORTS YOU LOVE AND THE GAMES YOU BET. YOUR WINNING SEASON BEGINS TODAY...ONLY AT MYBOOKIE!NFL Game PassThis season, get football on your time with NFL Game Pass. See all the action from every game with full game replays.Go to nfl.com/gamepass to start your free trial today. CbdMDRight now you can try the amazing duo of CBD Freeze and CBD Recover topicals and everything else cbdMd has to offer. They’re offering all our listeners 25% OFF your next order at cbdmd.com when you use the promo code LOCKEDONNFL at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello to all of you, Foxborough faithful. You are now locked in to the Lockdown Patriots podcast. My name is Mike DeBate, your host of Lockdown Patriots. And Patriots Nation, we start with breaking news here on this Saturday morning. As the harsh reality of the COVID-19 pandemic has once again manifested itself, and it's done so on the eve of one of the most anticipated games

on the Week 4 slate of the 2020 NFL season. As first reported by ESPN's Adam Schefter and Field Yates, your New England Patriots starting quarterback Cam Newton has indeed returned a positive test for COVID-19. And as you can imagine, this news sent shockwaves throughout NFL social media, most definitely through Patriots social media, but really in every aspect of media. This coming on the heels of both the president and the first lady testing positive for COVID. The Tennessee Titans continued to yield positive results almost a week after news broke

that their locker room was experiencing positive COVID-19 tests. But here in New England on Saturday, we're all reminded that this pandemic is very much real and can affect anyone at any time. Now, shortly after Field and Adam released their report via ESPN, the Patriots issued a team statement saying, quote, Late last night, meaning Friday, we received notice that a Patriots player tested positive for COVID-19. The player, who was not overtly named by the Patriots but was reported and confirmed by several media outlets, meaning Cam Newton, immediately entered self-quarantine.

Several additional players, coaches, and staff who have been in close contact with the player received point-of-care tests this morning and all were negative for COVID-19. We are in close consultation with the NFL as well as our team of independent doctors and specialists and will follow their guidance regarding our scheduled trip to Kansas City and game against the Chiefs. The health and safety of our team as well as our opponent are of the highest priority. So once it became public knowledge that there was indeed a positive test in the Patriots locker room, putting aside for a moment that it just happened to be Cam Newton, their starting quarterback,

any player that's testing positive is going to automatically create a number of questions in that locker room. How many more players will follow suit? How many players did he come in close contact with? Does this mean that more Patriots players and coaches will end up testing positive? Well, considering that the Patriots were scheduled to depart for Kansas City at 1 p.m. on Saturday, the answers to those questions were not readily available. And to give credit where credit is due to both the Patriots organization, the Chiefs organization, and the league, they acted quickly to make the decision England-Kansas City game scheduled for 425 p.m. Eastern on Sunday will be rescheduled to Monday or Tuesday after the positive COVID-19 tests on both teams.

In consultation with the infectious disease experts, both clubs are working closely with the NFL and the NFLPA to evaluate multiple close contacts, perform additional testing, and monitor developments. All decisions will be made with the health and safety of players, team, and game day personnel as our primary consideration. So there you have it, Patriots Nation. One of the most anticipated games on the Patriots 2020 NFL schedule will not take place as scheduled. But if I'm being honest, and I think most of you feel the same way, the most important thing right now is the health and safety of both teams. And I say both teams, folks, because the Kansas City Chiefs also returned a positive COVID-19 test.

Kansas City's practice squad quarterback Jordan Ta'amu has tested positive for COVID-19. He is being added to the reserve list. This first reported by the NFL Network's Ian Rappaport and Mike Garofalo. So that would explain why the NFL's statement said that there were positive tests on both teams. And even though the NFL is cautiously optimistic on playing this game on Monday or Tuesday, according to most of the reports I'm seeing out there, it looks like Tuesday is the more likely day, I still think this is a little bit over-aggressive thinking. And I'll give you my reasons on that. Here's what we know so far.

According to Jeff Howe of The Athletic Boston, and again, folks, I trust Jeff's reporting implicitly, Cam Newton actually learned of his positive test on Friday night. Per COVID-19 protocol, the New England Patriots team was then tested this morning and is awaiting the results that typically come back in the evening. Right now the team is on standby. They're awaiting word about their travel to Kansas City and which players, coaches, or team personnel might join Cam in having tested positive for COVID-19. These results will definitely be needed before the team decides to travel. And just to make sure that I was clear on this, I reached out to Dr. Jessica Flynn of

Boston Sports Journal this morning, who you will recall was a guest here earlier this week on Locked on Patriots, and she confirmed my suspicions. And I strongly encourage you to follow Dr. Flynn on Twitter, at DocFlynnNFL. In my humble opinion, she is the foremost expert on these matters, and she advised me of the following, which she would later tweet out on her account, saying any person who has had high-risk close contact with Cam Newton in the past few days should quarantine and therefore should not make the trip,

regardless of the rapid test results. Dr. Flynn advised that players and staff wear tracing devices explicitly for this purpose. Depending on contact tracing, that could involve a significant number of people. It depends a lot on physical distance, time, and the use of personal protective equipment. Dr. Flynn concluded her statement by saying it's very reasonable to question whether or not this travel or the game should even happen. Now again folks, I strongly caution you. Dr. Flynn is not saying the game won't happen. She's not confirming that there will be a number of positive tests to follow. She's simply giving her best medical hypothesis at this current time and I completely agree with her. The New England Patriots, the Kansas City

Chiefs, and the NFL need to find out what the results are going to be of the additional testing that was done on Saturday morning. Again, it's reported that that should be available sometime Saturday evening before they can even consider to move forward with arrangements to play this game. It looks like Tuesday at the earliest. And even though I still remain cautiously optimistic that this game can still occur this week, I definitely can't say that I'm certain that it will. But if, in fact, this game is played this week, it will be done without the services of Cam Newton for your New England Patriots.

And even though Cam's health and well-being are the most important thing here, not having him on the field for this game or any game is certainly a blow to the Patriots' chances of being not only victorious, but also competitive against a very formidable opponent in the defending Super Bowl champions. Cam had really been undergoing a three-game career renaissance here with the New England Patriots. He looked strong, he looked healthy, looked to be every bit the leader the Patriots needed him to be when they brought him in to be quarterback of this team, and his play on the field throughout the first three games definitely supported that. So with Cam Newton out, the Patriots will need to

find a new starting quarterback for this game. Veteran Brian Hoyer has been the Patriots' number two quarterback throughout the first three weeks of the season. He would seem to be the likely choice, but don't forget about Jarrett Stidham. Even though he's been a healthy scratch throughout the first three weeks, many fans and media alike were prepared to hand Jarrett the keys to the kingdom, meaning he was the expected starter for the New England Patriots before they signed Cam Newton. But regardless of which hands are taking snaps under center, the Pats are definitely downgraded without Cam Newton. Newton's been one of the Patriots' top performers, not just the quarterback, but all over the team. His stats speak for themselves. 62 of 91, passing for 714 yards, two touchdown passes. He's also added 35 rushes for 149 yards and four rushing touchdowns.

Cam has definitely been everything that New England Patriots fans had hoped for. I think he's exceeded expectations, and as much as the Patriots are going to miss his play on the field, definitely sending out prayers, well wishes, and positive thoughts to Cam on a quick recovery, and we look forward to seeing him back out on the field. And that really is my final analysis on this, folks. The Chiefs, the Patriots, and the NFL all have an obligation to keep their players, their coaches, their personnel as safe and as healthy as possible. Whatever the outcome that may be, whether it's postponing this game indefinitely,

whether it's playing it on Tuesday night, no matter what they have to do, they need to keep everyone safe. They need to keep everyone healthy. Earlier this week, Bill Belichick was asked about the difficulties that the Tennessee Titans were having with regard to their coronavirus outbreak.

And keep in mind, Belichick being in his late 60s is at high risk for complications from COVID-19. Belichick said, We monitor everything every day. We don't just do it when there's a problem or something comes up somewhere else. We do it on a daily basis and make everyone, because this is everybody. It's not just players.

It's players and coaches and staff and everybody else. We make everyone aware. If we can do something better, then we talk to them about how we can do it better. So we try to monitor it the best we can, and we, I think, are pretty vigilant with it. Really, all of us. And by all accounts, the Patriots have been vigilant. Prior to this morning, they had not placed one player throughout training camp or the first three weeks of the season on the COVID-19 reserve list. That's very impressive and shows that the Patriots took this seriously right from the get-go. A silver lining on all this may be once again provided by our good friend Dr. Jessica Flynn,

who tweeted out on Saturday afternoon that if Cam Newton does not already have or develop symptoms of COVID-19, that might be an indication that he had a low viral load and maybe wasn't very infectious yesterday. That could help to stop the spread, but we simply don't know it at this time. What we do know is that everyone is concerned about the health and welfare of the New England Patriots team. Everyone is concerned about the health and welfare of the Kansas City Chiefs team. This is not something that's being lost on the Patriots. NFL Network's Mike Giardi tweeted out that he had been exchanging text

with multiple Patriots. NFL Network's Mike Giardi tweeted out that he had been exchanging text with multiple Patriots players on Saturday afternoon. There was relief that they would not be flying out on Saturday, but one unnamed Patriots player said, quote, we've seen what's happened in Tennessee. It's a concern. It's scary. I don't want to bring this home to my family, unquote. Folks, I don't think it could be said any more clearer than that. We all wanted football. We all love football. But we simply cannot just expect it to march on, no matter the cost, at the expense of its players, its coaches, and its personnel.

I continue to hope, beyond all hope, that these positive cases are mostly isolated incidents, that they're properly contained, and that the NFL season can move on without much of a further delay. But if these cases continue to arise, then I think it's fair for us all to ask the question about whether or not we're expecting too much from a league that wants nothing more than to provide sports and entertainment, but possibly at the expense of the health and welfare of the very personnel that it's designed to protect. Pats Nation, this story will undoubtedly continue to develop throughout the weekend,

so please keep a sharp eye on my Twitter, at MDABATEFPC. I'll continue to bring you the latest news as it comes in. Definitely keep a sharp eye on the Locked On Patriots account as well, at LO underscore Patriots, for any further developments, which may or may not include any additional emergency podcasts. Once again, I'm Mike DeBate.

I thank you so much for listening and for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage. Until next time, please stay safe, stay well, continue to be the change you wish to see in the world. Have a great weekend, everyone.