Thursday was a rough day for the Pittsburgh Steelers and their fan base. What started with optimism the game in Week 4 vs. the Tennessee Titans would be made up either Monday or Tuesday turned south in a hurry.
After hearing of another player and personnel member testing positive for COVID-19, the NFL has decided to postpone the game between two 3-0 teams and move it to later in the season.
When will it be played? No one knows at this point. Sure, there are some options, but the NFL has yet to set an official date for the contest scheduled to be played in Nashville.
Believe it or not, but the Steelers held practice Thursday, even after the news broke of the game being moved out of Week 4. After practice Mike Tomlin met with media, via Zoom, and spoke about how he was truly disappointed his team won’t get to play this week.
This per Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
“Mike Tomlin on the early bye week: “I’m disappointed because we were preparing to play. We worked extremely hard for what we thought was a game against an undefeated team in their venue.”
— Ray Fittipaldo (@rayfitt1) October 1, 2020
Of course, the next line of questions turned to the fact if the Steelers are to be granted their bye week this Sunday, it would mean 13 straight weeks of games to end the 2020 regular season.
Mike Tomlin’s thoughts on that?
Dale Lolley of DKPittsburghSports spells it out for your:
Tomlin on the Steelers potentially playing 13-straight weeks: "We do not care." #Steelers #dkps
— Dale Lolley (@dlolley_pgh) October 1, 2020
The league could suggest the Steelers will still get their Week 8 bye, and create a Week 18 for games which need to be made up, but at this point that doesn’t seem likely. If playing 13 straight games is what the Steelers have to do, then so be it.
As for the bye week itself, the Steelers players won’t be able to leave town like usual since they will still have to undergo daily testing. After the outbreak in Tennessee it makes daily testing even more of a focus moving forward.
So, the Steelers have the weekend off. What next? No one knows, but the NFL is likely to make their plans public sooner rather than later. And we will have all that news, and more, right here at BTSC...so stay tuned!