Ravens wide receiver Dez Bryant surprisingly announced he tested positive for COVID-19 just 30 minutes before his much-anticipated reunion with the Dallas Cowboys on Tuesday night.
“Tell me why they pull me from warming up so I can go get tested,” Bryant posted on Twitter. “… I tested positive for Covid.
“The crazy thing is i have the same damn routine. … this s— do not make sense to me.”
According to the NFL, Bryant’s polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test Tuesday morning was inconclusive, as was the rerun of the test. The results came back on Tuesday evening because the lab is in Maryland.
The subsequent point-of-contact PCR test at the stadium was positive, and Bryant was removed, per NFL protocol.
Bryant had taken the field for pregame warm-ups despite the fact that, per league protocols, his two inconclusive tests should have been treated as if they were positive, and he should have been “subject to the other requirements and procedures of a positive test.”
A source told ESPN that Bryant was already on the field by the time the league found out the results of his tests were inconclusive.
Immediately after being pulled from the field, Bryant sat for a contact-tracing interview with league and NFL Players Association officials, who also uploaded data from a movement-tracking device Bryant was wearing, a source told ESPN. Based on the interview and the results from the device, officials felt confident there were no high-risk close contacts, according to sources.
According to the league’s COVID-19 policy, close contact does not include brief interactions, such as walking past someone.
Every other player on both teams tested negative on Tuesday.
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