Saints Head Coach Sean Payton tests positive for COVID-19
In March of 2020, New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton became the first known NFL figure to contract COVID-19.
Since that time, Payton is fully vaccinated, but is now the latest positive case in a recent surge across the league.
Today the team announced he would miss Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with hopes of returning for the December 27th Monday night game against the Miami Dolphins.
Payton was ‘immediately isolated,’ but reportedly missed practice Wednesday when he was feeling under the weather despite testing negative.
Per NFL protocols, he’ll be out for minimum of 10 days unless he meets the league requirements to return sooner.
Acting in his place is Defensive Coordinator Dennis Allen. Allen said, “Well, look, I think certainly having some head coaching experience helps in situations like these, and obviously whenever you’re in a deal like this, it’s not an ideal situation. But I’m excited about the opportunity to go out there and perform on Sunday night. I think our guys are excited about it. In terms of, do I expect any other coaches – look, that’s the environment that we’re in right now, so you always have to be prepared for anything that could come up and hopefully we don’t have to deal with that. But if we do, then we’ll have to adjust.”
Unless something crazy happens in the next 48 hours, the Saints and Bucs are set to kick things off at 7:20 p.m. Sunday on WXXV on NBC.
