Mike Tomlin reveals two Steelers players tested positive for COVID-19

The Pittsburgh head coach said neither infected player visited team facilities.

The very concept of football feels increasingly incompatible with the unavoidable threat of COVID0-19, and one by one, teams of all stripes have been forced to reckon with this uncomfortable reality. On Tuesday, head coach Mike Tomlin revealed that the Pittsburgh Steelers had a coronavirus scare of their own, though it mercifully isn’t nearly as startling as what some of the deep south’s most prestigious college programs are dealing with.

Per Tomlin, two Steelers players tested positive for COVID-19 in April. The good news? Each one made a full recovery, and neither spent time at team facilities while infected.

Steelers had two players test positive for the novel coronavirus in April

There are two ways to look at any positive test. Yes, it’s rough to know that anyone ever had to carry the virus (even if they were asymptomatic) knowing the extent of its contagiousness, but rigorous testing is ultimately necessary if we’re going to beat this thing, and more testing means more positives.

What this means for the viability of football in a world without a vaccine, however, is another question.

And if there’s any peace of mind to be taken from this, it’s that the Steelers aren’t the LSU Tigers, who recently had to place 30 players in quarantine over concerns about contact with the virus. A football team is a sprawling enterprise, but nothing can be left up to chance with stakes as high as they are.

After all, the health of thousands of individuals is on the line, to say nothing of the hundreds of billions of dollars football generated by football’s overall global impact.

If the Steelers don’t suffer any more positive tests this summer, they’ll be far ahead of the curve. If only every team could be as lucky.