Word of a positive COVID-19 test forced the Ravens to pull Dez Bryant just prior to kickoff earlier this week. Now, the wide receiver says that he has tested negative for the coronavirus in two subsequent tests (via Twitter).
“I tested negative back to back for covid and I’m not excited about it,” said Bryant.
After the first positive test, Bryant said that he would call it quits for the rest of the season rather waiting to go through the league’s protocols. Now, his plans aren’t exactly clear. For what it’s worth, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh says that he plans to have Bryant back once he comes off of the COVID-19/reserve list (Twitter link).
Negative tests notwithstanding, the Ravens have placed Bryant on their reserve/COVID list. Bryant is ineligible to practice until being removed from the virus list. It has, to say the least, been an interesting week for the veteran wide receiver.
The former Cowboys Pro Bowler lobbied NFL teams for a long time before he got his opportunity to return with the Ravens. Since signing with Baltimore, he hasn’t been used much. His only registered stats came in Week 11 against the Titans, when he caught four passes for 28 yards.
After beating Bryant’s former team without him, the Ravens will turn their attention to the Browns on Monday night.
Guess the question now is who tests the players, league staff or their own medical staff’s? If it’s league docs, they can ‘misdiagnose players’ and have outcomes change.
I’m not sure it actually matters who conducts the tests. The league protocol requires any result (positive or negative) to be confirmed by a second test. The probability of back to back false positives or negatives is pretty slim.
Except for that he had back-to-back inconclusives, then a positive, then back-to-back negatives. Back-to-back false positive or negative wouldn’t be anywhere near out of the realm of possibility.
If your getting a series of results as you described I would question whether the person(s) administering and reading the results had any training at all.
Positive on Tuesday but negative on Thursday? These tests are a joke.
Or, did Jerry sneak in and swap his test?
The quicker results are returned, the higher the likelihood of inaccuracy. It’s not a joke; that’s simply the nature of antigen tests. Would you rather just not test anybody and have Covid spreading across the league like wildfire? Coming into the season, players knew there would be occasional Covid-related setbacks. Unfortunately, that’s simply the age we live in until America pulls itself together and collectively vaccinates