Mike Tomlin is giving his team another day off, according to NFL Network’s Aditi Kinkhabwala. After having Thanksgiving off, Tomlin has decided to cancel the team’s Friday practice, per her tweet from moments ago.
Initially, the Steelers delayed practice in an attempt to gather more information from the league regarding the status of Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens. But Tomlin has decided to cancel practice altogether, likely in an effort to give players extra time off since his plan of having a mini bye week has been thrown out the window. The team will presumably return for a Saturday walkthrough tomorrow.
As of this writing, the Steelers are still set to play the Ravens Sunday at 1:15 PM/ET with the game broadcast nationally on NBC. But the odds of the game happening this weekend are in serious doubt given the Ravens’ outbreak of COVID cases. Their roster is decimated, more cases are occurring every day, and head coach John Harbaugh told ESPN no players will be allowed to their facility until Monday at the earliest.
If the game can’t be played Sunday, the league will look to push the game back to Monday or Tuesday. Failing that, they may have to shift the game to a Week 18 at the end of the regular season.
We’ll keep you posted on any new developments. Reportedly, the league will make a decision on the status of this game by today although that – like everything else – may be in dispute.
UPDATE (12:16 PM): The Steelers have officially announced the cancellation of Friday’s practice.
