LA Rams hit hard. 13 players are on COVID-19 protocols

If you thought that the LA Rams were in good shape after pulling off a major upset of the NFL’s best Arizona Cardinals while shorthanded, think again. Less than 24 hours after a Monday Night Football victory, the team is once more in a battle for their lives. This time, however, the team is not competing on the football field. Rather, the team is fighting a losing battle over staying healthy.

The news is a rapidly developing story and has triggered a number of ‘safeguards’ that will now be implemented immediately.   That means that the LA Rams training facility has been shut down and the team will conduct all business remotely over the next two days or possibly longer. The NFL/NFLPA have agreed to enact enhanced protocols for situations like this. Right now, the LA Rams are enacting all required protocols.

So what triggered such drastic measures?  A huge outbreak of players tested positive for COVID-19 today:

And right on the heels of that news, more news:

So are all of the LA Rams unvaccinated?

LA Rams are 98.1 percent vaccinated

The LA Rams have one of the highest vaccination rates among the NFL. But the vaccine is not, and never has been, the same as immunization. The vaccine has been tested to be effective in helping people avoid contracting the disease, and if contracted, to minimize the severity of the symptoms. But this is all new territory. Since inception, vaccines had no data available as to how long their effect would last, or would the protection apply to new strains of the disease.

The news from the LA Rams indicates that the team has run aground of a new wave of the disease, and is working rapidly to contain the spread as quickly as possible.

How will this impact the LA Rams’ ability to compete on Week 15 against the Seattle Seahawks is unclear right now. Right now, the team has 10 players from the active roster, two players from the practice squad, and one player from the injured reserve roster on the COVID-19 reserve list. You can monitor the latest by checking out the team’s official roster here.

How will this affect the team for Week 15, and beyond? More names could be forthcoming, as per the CDC website, exposure to the disease could produce positive test results as much as 5-7 days after the initial exposure. We will do our best to keep you updated as well as possible.