NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A group of Titans worked out at Montgomery Bell Academy on Sept. 30 despite an NFL directive not to hold such get-togethers while team headquarters was closed because of a COVID-19 outbreak, according to sources who saw players there.
A league source said that once the Titans building was closed down on Sept. 29, the franchise was told there were to be “no in-person meetings, workouts or activities at the facility or elsewhere.”
Students at the private school saw a large group of adult football players they identified as Titans working out on the school’s field during classes in the middle of the day. Another source said he saw Ryan Tannehill there.
Mike Vrabel and Jon Robinson did not return requests for comment.
These pictures are not definitive but offer a long-distance glimpse of what one person saw from long-range.
This report is relying on what I've been told by sources, not by what I am seeing here.
On October 1 in a Zoom call with media Vrabel discussed things he had told his players.
“Reminded them to not gather with each other, players and staff, until we can find a safe way to enter in back to our building,” Vrabel said.
Keeping players apart would help assure they didn’t pass the coronavirus around and extend the window for transmission, though outdoor gathering are generally considered to be safe.
Titans DBs gathered on Sept 29 at Rose Park, near Belmont University, and a group of Titans was at the same location the afternoon of the 30th, sources said. [This is corrected from an earlier version of the story where the DB get-together was reported as being on the 30th. I regret the error.]
Such gatherings are likely to lead to fines and could cost the Titans a draft pick or draft position as penalties.
National reports say the NFL is also looking at the Titans for violations of mask usage in their facility. ESPN has reported players may have failed to report symptoms and Shane Bowen, who appears to be the first case at the start of the outbreak, may have failed to report contact with a person with COVID-19.
The Titans now have 10 players and nine staff members sidelined by COVID-19.
Said Tannehill on Sept. 30: “You can't sit around on the couch for a week and be on a Zoom meeting and expect to go be at a physical peak on a Sunday, or whenever the game is going to be. It's going to look a little bit different for everybody, what they're able to do, where they're able to work out, in a garage, in a gym somewhere, I'm not even sure.
"Every man on this team is charged with prepping themselves, getting their bodies right, making sure that we're running, we're conditioned, and ready to go whenever the game comes around….”
“I'm just going to make sure that I'm getting throws in and ready to go and throw the ball well when the game comes around.”
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