Philadelphia Eagles place three players on their COVID-19 list

Three Philadelphia Eagles land on their Reserve/COVID-19 list.

For the Philadelphia Eagles, the difficulty of navigating through a global health crisis and trying to piece a team together simultaneously just hit home. A little after 4 PM EST on the East Coast, Philly announced via social media that three players have been placed on their reserve/COVID-19 list.

Star right tackle Lane Johnson, linebacker Nathan Gerry, and project tackle Jordan Mailata were all named. An announcement was also made on the team’s official website.

Chris McPherson handled the storytelling duties on PhiladelphiaEagles.com. Here’s a quick explanation of what this latest announcement means.

"The Reserve/COVID-19 list was created for a player who either tests positive for COVID-19 or who has been in close contact with an infected person or persons. Per NFL-NFLPA policy, clubs are not permitted to comment on a player’s medical status other than referring to roster status."

Lane Johnson issued a statement via social media.

If you’re a loyal Philadelphia Eagles fan, this isn’t the end of the world.

If you love the NFL, the “Birds” or any of the other 31 teams that make up our great country’s most popular sport, this is bad news, but it isn’t the end of the world either. Coming into the current campaign, we knew that, if we were going to enjoy a football season, it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.

The goal is to keep every team, its players, and the franchise as a whole as safe as possible. That’s exactly what’s being done here. As McPherson’s report states, this doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone who winds up on this list or one like it has tested positive for Coronavirus. They could have, simply, come into close contact with someone who has. Then again, they could be infected. We’ll have to wait and see what transpires.

Keep something else in mind. If there was going to be any semblance of a training camp, Summertime workouts, or, most importantly, a 16-game regular season in 2020, we knew positive COVID-19 tests were going to happen. The true test is how those positive results and affected players would be managed.

The “Birds” have a plan in place. They have a safety protocol. That’s been approved by the NFL Players Association. This is unfortunate, yes, but it isn’t the end of the world either. Philadelphia will get through this. Keep your fingers crossed in the meantime.