For Belichick, safety is priority

FOXBORO -- During a normal week, the Patriots would have entered Thursday preparing for their second practice of the week. They would have had most of their game plan installed by day’s end. On Friday, they would be wrapping up preparation and heading into the weekend ready to take on the Denver Broncos at Gillette Stadium.

As we’ve learned, nothing about 2020 is normal.

That’s the case for head coach Bill Belichick. On this Thursday, he set out to prepare his Patriots players and coaches for the Broncos by way of virtual meetings. After Stephon Gilmore tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, Gillette Stadium has been shut down and Patriots practice has been canceled for at least two days. It’s possible the team returns on Friday for one practice before their matchup against the Broncos, but it’s not a certainty.

At this point, Belichick said, the priority is player safety.

“There’s nothing more important than the health of the team. Without a healthy team, you don’t have a team,” Belichick said Thursday morning.

“That’s priority No. 1. I’d say not only for our team but for their families and people that are close to them. That’s always our No. 1 concern. We’ll do everything we can to make that best that we can make it. That’s the way it’s always been and that’ll never change.”

By Thursday evening, reports surfaced that the game will be moved to Monday night. Of course, that would only be the case if the Patriots don’t have any more positive test results. According to the NFL Network, all the Patriots’ results from Wednesday were negative. That’s good news, but as has occurred in Tennessee, it does not mean there won’t be more positive results.

On Thursday, another Titans player tested positive. That brought the team’s total to 23 players and coaches with coronavirus. Friday will mark two weeks since the Titans’ first positive test.

For the Patriots, it hasn’t been as bad, but the team went into Thursday with three positive tests — quarterback Cam Newton, practice squad defensive lineman Bill Murray and Gilmore. According to ESPN, Gilmore had dinner with Newton Friday night. This happened before Newton and the Patriots learned of his test results. The Patriots quarterback was allowed in the building and at practice all day Friday.

When Newton tested positive, the NFL delayed the Patriots-Chiefs game a day, but when the two teams had three days of negative test results, the game went on. That meant Gilmore, who was exposed to the coronavirus, road on a bus, a plane and shared a locker room with his teammates. Belichick wouldn’t comment when he was asked whether he knew about the cornerback having dinner with Newton.

Due to the incubation period of the virus, it’s hard to know when the Patriots will be in the clear. Belichick was asked about that and his level of concern if the team returns to practice or the game field.

“Those are all the questions that we’re asking,” he said. “We’re relying on the doctors and people in that field to take everything under advisement. I’d say they have a big role in making those decisions. Really, these aren’t football decisions; they’re medical decisions. In terms of medical decisions, those fall to medical people. Football decisions fall to football people. We’ll see how it goes.

“Where we are today, I don’t think we can really plan too far ahead — start talking about Saturday, Sunday and a bunch of other days. There’s a lot that can happen in the meantime. As things change, if there are positive or potentially negative developments, we’ll look at those.

“It’s the health and safety of the team first and football second. Yesterday and today, we’re not in the building and we’ll take it day by day.”

For now, the Patriots are at a disadvantage relative to the Broncos, who are practicing this week. Since the Patriots can’t get together in person, Belichick said he and the coaches are working with players with diagrams and film breakdowns. He acknowledged that it’s not a great situation.

“Not ideal. This isn’t what we’d normally do,” Belichick said. “There is an opportunity to cover things and get things taught and explain them and have players ask questions and have coaches put together a game plan based on the same format that we’re using. Again, it’s not what we’d choose to do because we have that option and we don’t do it this way. This is what we can do, so we’ll do the best we can with it.”