The Panthers, who just played the Bears last Sunday, have been dealing with positive COVID cases and having to put players who have been in close contact with those players on the reserve/COVID list.
And while the Bears haven’t had any cases of their own pop up in the days since, they’re taking whatever precautions they can ahead of Monday’s upcoming game against the Rams:
#Bears coach Matt Nagy said the team is doing meetings remotely due to a Carolina Panthers positive COVID-19 test.
It remains the same protocol the Bears were in last week. They are practicing and doing walk-throughs, but limiting time together otherwise.
— Sean Hammond (@sean_hammond) October 22, 2020
To be clear, the Bears are still trying to do what they can to prepare as they normally would. However, they are doing so with a fair amount of caution knowing what happened with the Panthers. Holding remote meetings in the wake of what the news coming out of Carolina is a heady decision. This is similar to what the team did after practice squad lineman Badara Traore tested positive for COVID-19. In other words, this isn’t new territory for the Bears.
Even still … that they have to clear this hurdle in the first place should serve as a reminder of the challenges that come with playing professional football in a pandemic.