Roary
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- Mar 18, 2019
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Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list on August 1, but he had a short stay on the list due to what the Lions called a “false positive” a few days later.
While Stafford had tested negative multiple times before the positive test, the league’s protocols called for him to go onto the reserve list and the episode caused some to wonder about the possibility of players missing games for similar reasons. The league responded by tweaking those protocols to provide a quicker path to games for asymptomatic players who test positive under similar circumstances.
Stafford spoke to reporters from Lions camp on Tuesday and said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, that he was glad that the false positive test happened at this point as opposed to a period of the year when the team is on the field. He said he was also glad that his experience might make it easier for other players to avoid similar outcomes down the road this season.
The Lions surely feel the same about the timing of the test because they went 0-8 without Stafford in the lineup during the 2019 season.