NFL COVID-19 double-standard punishes Cleveland Browns, rewards Ravens

Baltimore still the favorite child

The Detroit Lions were forced to play without a good chunk of their coaching staff on Saturday, and the Denver Broncos played with no quarterbacks a few weeks ago. The Browns are just one of many teams who have had to deal with the pandemic’s effects. One such team is the Baltimore Ravens, who had a staffer consciously break protocol, leading to an outbreak that forced them to play without multiple running backs against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

That is, they played after the game was postponed three separate times. The Ravens did have to play without Lamar Jackson, but the league did everything it could to make sure they were able to field every competitive position group. Instead of being punished by the league for putting people, including their opponent, in danger, they were rewarded.

The Tennessee Titans, despite having a group of defensive backs break protocol and practice together, were also not punished. If the Las Vegas Raiders can have draft picks taken away because their coach wasn’t wearing his mask properly, why should other teams be let off the hook for doing worse?

Cleveland should not make excuses for their poor play, and they took full responsibility following the game. That’s exactly what they needed to do following an ugly loss against a terrible team in a near-must-win game in Week 16. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t set up to fail.