Omicron playing havoc with NBA, NFL schedules

With the Omicron variant spreading through North America at an extremely high rate, the National Basketball Association and National Football League have made the decision to play through, and only postpone games among teams that have been the most seriously impacted.

In the NBA, there have been 70 players who have gone into the COVID health and safety protocol. From December 12 to 18, there were 50 players alone according to Baxter Holmes of ESPN. This has led to a plethora of games having to be postponed. Among the teams impacted the most recently are the Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets. The Bulls did not play for eight full days before beating the Los Angeles Lakers 115-110 on Sunday, while the Nets have 10 players out with COVID–including their big three of James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant according to Gilbert McGregor of the Sporting News.

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On Sunday, it was announced that five games this week would be postponed. Among other teams with coronavirus cases that are impacted are the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers.

In the NFL, three games were postponed 48 hours because of COVID outbreaks among the Los Angeles Rams, Washington Football Team, and Cleveland Browns. That means we will see two games played on Monday and two more on Tuesday.  As of this week there were 151 NFL players who tested positive for coronavirus according to Jake Aferiat of the Sporting News, and the NFL made the controversial decision this week to only test players who were showing symptoms or had not been fully vaccinated. This means asymptomatic, fully vaccinated players no longer have to be tested, even though they might carry the disease.

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