Nobody said playing an NFL season amidst a global pandemic was going to be easy. As expected, there have been a few hiccups with scheduling this year as COVID-19 has made its rounds in the NFL.
Now, Thursday’s Thanksgiving slate of football games is being affected as more and more members of the Baltimore Ravens test positive for the novel coronavirus heading into the holiday.
Initially, the NFL was expected to broadcast three games on Thursday as they do every year. The Detroit Lions and the Houston Texans are set to play the early afternoon game. Then, the Washington Football Team and the Dallas Cowboys will face each other around dinner time.
And finally, the highly-anticipated matchup between the undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers and the 6-4 Baltimore Ravens was going to close out the holiday slate. Unfortunately, as COVID cases rise is Baltimore, the NFL had no choice but to push the late-game back to Sunday.
As expected, members of the Steelers are not happy and expressed their disappointment on Twitter shortly after the NFL announced the postponement.
Never one to be silenced with his opinion, Steelers star wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster took to Twitter just moments after the league’s announcement. For a guy who loves the spotlight — playing in front of the entire country on Thanksgiving was likely going to be a big moment for Schuster. So, his disappointment is far from a surprise.
At first, Eric Ebron and Devlin Hodges’ tweets came off as cryptic as they instantly reacted to the news. It took a few minutes for fans to figure out why the two Steelers players were frustrated on social media.
The good news is the Steelers won’t be forced to sit out for a week, and they will still have an opportunity to take on the Ravens if all goes right in the next few days. While canceling perhaps the most intriguing matchup on the Thanksgiving day slate is unfortunate, the NFL has no other choice in this situation.
Before the season started, the league knew there could be scheduling problems as the virus rises again. Now, the Steelers, Ravens, and the rest of the league has to deal with the hapless side of playing sports during a pandemic.
