Browns are still battling COVID
CLEVELAND — Baker Mayfield hasn’t thrown a football in four days. The Browns haven’t practiced this week.
Cleveland’s return to the NFL playoffs feels cursed.
For the second straight day, the team’s headquarters and training facility stayed closed due to a COVID-19 flare-up that has knocked coach Kevin Stefanski out of Sunday night’s game in Pittsburgh and wreaked havoc on the Browns’ preparations.
There seemed to be a possibility the wild-card game could be moved back after Dr. Allen Sills, the league’s chief medical officer, told NFL Network “there was some spread from one individual to another” among the Browns.
However, a league spokesman said Thursday there “is no change to the status of the game” at Heinz Field.
As his first postseason appearance draws near, Mayfield said he’s been doing all he can at home to get ready.
“A lot of band and bodyweight stuff,” the quarterback said.
The Browns and their die-hard fans waited almost 20 years to feel playoff excitement again, and it’s been doused by forces beyond their control.
Still, Mayfield said he and his teammates will do all they can to represent themselves well in the wild-card game — their second matchup with the rival Steelers in eight days.
The Browns’ ever-changing COVID-19 list moved again.
Safety Ronnie Harrision became the latest player to test positive and will have to sit out Sunday. Harrison joins Pro Bowl left guard Joel Bitonio, cornerbacks Denzel Ward and Kevin Johnson, linebacker Malcolm Smith, wide receiver KhaDarel Hodge and tight end Harrison Bryant.
