A COVID-19 scare circulated through the Giants on Wednesday. The sight of players, coaches, team personnel, team executives — including general manager Dave Gettleman and co-owner John Mara — all waiting outside the testing trailer in a parking lot brought the pandemic back into the forefront of off-the-field life.
Three players — running back Saquon Barkley, safety Xavier McKinney and offensive lineman Matt Skura — tested positive on Wednesday and were not on the field for practice because of COVID protocols. Barkley is dealing with a sprained ankle that has already kept him out of the past three games. If his ankle is healed enough to allow him to play on Sunday — that is far from a sure thing — Barkley, who is vaccinated, needs two negative tests within 24 hours to be able to play, as long as he develops no symptoms, if a second test comes back positive.
The Giants said earlier Wednesday that 13 members of the organization tested positive on Tuesday after the team returned home from Kansas City, following Monday night’s 20-17 loss to the Chiefs. Upon follow-up testing, 12 of those tests came back negative, with running backs coach Burton Burns’ test remaining positive. Adhering to COVID-19 protocols, Burns is now isolated away from the team and new mass testing is underway.
There were more positive test results Wednesday morning, and those individuals were retested. All players and Tier 1 and Tier 2 personnel were required to retest prior to the morning practice, which was pushed back from the original 10:30 a.m. start time because of the backup at the testing trailer.
“As a team we’ve done a really good job of following the protocols and staying committed to it,” coach Joe Judge said. “I think the thing that’s really showing up more this year than last year is obviously, with being vaccinated, with protocols being what they are, obviously a lot more relaxed than last year, you’ve got to be very vigilant in terms of what you’re doing outside the building.”
Masks were brought back and worn inside the building as a precaution. All vaccinated players are tested once a week. Unvaccinated players are tested every day. Judge said there are very few unvaccinated players on the roster and that Burns apologized to him after testing positive. Burns, 69, is the oldest member of Judge’s staff.
“He doesn’t go anywhere,” Judge said. “He goes from his apartment to here and gets on the team plane and goes to the hotel and doesn’t leave when he gets to the hotel. I told Burton the one thing about this whole deal is, you don’t have to go somewhere to get it, it can come to you.”
It is too soon to tell if the playing status of any Giants will be affected for Sunday’s game against the Raiders at MetLife Stadium. Any unvaccinated player who is considered a “close contact” with any positive case will likely have to miss the game and be placed on the reserve list.