Jets notified about 10 false-positive coronavirus tests, Adam Gase confirms

Adam Gase confirmed the Jets were notified by the NFL on Saturday that the team had 10 false-positive COVID-19 tests during the league's daily testing. 

The Jets coach said he had to cancel a team walk-through practice Saturday night, and added he wasn’t sure if the team was even going to be able to practice Sunday until early in the morning.

“Everything happened really fast as far as what was being told to us,” Gase said on a Zoom call after Sunday’s practice. “Our guys did a great job as far as getting in touch with the league office, following all the right protocols, making sure we were doing all the right things. 

“Our guys really jumped on it quick as soon as we found out . . . and our guys were trying to understand what was going on, but they handled everything well.”

The NFL released a statement Sunday morning that read: “Saturday's daily COVID testing returned several positives tests from each of the clubs serviced by the same laboratory in New Jersey.  We are working with our testing partner, BioReference, to investigate these results, while the clubs work to confirm or rule out the positive tests.  Clubs are taking immediate precautionary measures as outlined in the NFL-NFLPA's health and safety protocols to include contact tracing, isolation of individuals and temporarily adjusting the schedule, where appropriate.  The other laboratories used for NFL testing have not had similar results.”

According to Sports Illustrated, the Giants had issues with presumptive positive tests among some staffers on Saturday as well. While the team stated none of its players tested positive, it would not comment on the results of tests among other employees. According to the report, those who received a positive on Saturday were given rapid tests on Sunday.

The Giants players were off from practice on Saturday, but players and employees are tested every day, including their days off.

“We were able to come out [Sunday] and everybody was out here,” Giants coach Joe Judge said.

That appeared to be the case for all of the coaches as well as the players, but any coach who had a positive Saturday could have been cleared by the rapid test on Sunday and on the field for the early afternoon workout.

Gase commended the players as well as the Jets training and medical staffs for their handling of a difficult situation.

“The guys that were told [they had an initial positive test] did a good job of quarateening themselves,” Gase said, “or if they went home [that they] make sure they followed the directions of our doctors and our training staff, which was encouraging to see that our guys just reacted the right way. 

“We were in virtual meetings. I was told, and then they had to start informing players and staff. We shut the building down after we figured out all the things that were going on. The players weren’t here, [so] that kind of worked out for us in that aspect.”

“Coach Gase was very upfront about it,” tight end Daniel Brown said. “He told us in a meeting [Saturday] there was some stuff going on and he said just stay by your phone for updates. We got the call sometime [Saturday] night to proceed as normal and everything was fine, and there’s nothing to worry about.”

The players certainly didn’t seem to be worried during their most physical, chippy, practice of camp on Sunday.

“With this group of guys that we got in the locker room it wasn’t a huge deal. We just roll with the punches,” tight end Ryan Griffin said. “It’s been a [fluid] situation ever since that first week of March from OTAs [organized team activities] moving to virtual workouts and that was a last minute type [of] deal [and] everybody’s just on high alert. 

“You know, everybody’s dealing with [COVID]. The whole world has got to adjust and we’re no different, so it is what it is, and we didn’t miss a beat out here. Practice was great and, offensively, we were hitting, so it was good.”

Still, Gase and the Jets were left wondering what if this happened on a Saturday before a regular-season game. 

“It’s probably better that it happened now than in three weeks,” said Gase, referring to the Jets’s season-opening game in Buffalo on Sept. 13. “I’m realistic in the thought that we’re in such an unknown. Everything is so day-to-day right now, and [we’re] understanding that things can change very quickly, and we got to be able to adjust.”

USA Today reported on Sunday morning that Bills general manager Brandon Beane said he thought there were 10 or 11 teams affected by testing irregularities.

The story added that while it was unclear which teams submitted their testing samples to the lab in New Jersey that came under scrutiny, at least six – including the Jets, Cleveland and Minnesota (both teams canceled Sunday workouts according to The Associated Press), Chicago (which had nine false-positive tests, according to The AP story), Buffalo and Pittsburgh – altered plans on Sunday.

“It’s kind of crazy, you know, thinking like if that happens before a game, and it could happen to any team, I mean, it's crazy,” Jets linebacker Avery Williamson said. "You don’t know what’s going on. It’s really nothing that you can really do. If somebody has it [COVID and] you don’t know and you’re practicing against them . . . I just hope that we can stay as clean as possible. I hope it just stays with false positives. ” 

— With Tom Rock, wire reports