Why NFL let the Ravens game continue after Dez Bryant’s positive COVID-19 test

Dez Bryant waited three years to have a crack at the Cowboys after they released him in 2017. But moments before facing Dallas on Tuesday night, the Ravens receiver was notified he had tested positive for COVID-19 and pulled from warmups.

The NFL decided to move forward with the start of the game anyway — a decision that puzzled many observers, given his close proximity with teammates.

Bryant wrote on social media that the sequence of the events had convinced him he didn’t want to play anymore in 2020. It convinced plenty of others that the NFL’s approach to the pandemic was a charade.

“Yea I’m going to go ahead and call it a quit (sic) for the rest of the season,” Bryant said in a Twitter post. “I can’t deal with this.”

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The NFL conducts contact tracing following any positive test. Those who are deemed high risk of having being infected are then quarantined, regardless of whether they have tested positive themselves.

After Ravens players warmed up with Bryant on Tuesday and presumably spent time around him this week, there was no game delay. The league reportedly used tracking data from devices players wore to determine no high-risk contact occured. It also reportedly conducted interviews with people on the field.

That hasn’t convinced everyone the NFL is doing the right thing. The Ravens have dealt with a COVID-19 outbreak for weeks; they’re playing Tuesday night rather than Sunday because of those prior positive tests. Even the national Fox broadcast sounded confused about the situation, and people on social media were explicitly critical of the league.

When images purportedly showing Bryant hugging former Cowboys teammates emerged, the outcry about the game being played grew louder.