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NFL reschedules three games, releases league-wide memo amidst COVID-19 spike

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© Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

As cases of COVID-19 continue to rise throughout the country and hit major sports leagues hard, the NFL is responding by postponing three games.

With the Rams, Browns and Washington Football Team all well over 20 COVID-19 cases and with the Rams and Browns placing more players on the Reserve/COVID-19 list on Friday, the league has moved back all games involving those teams.

The following comes from the NFL:

“The Las Vegas Raiders-Cleveland Browns game scheduled for Saturday, December 18 has been moved to Monday, December 20 at 5 p.m. ET on NFL Network.

The Washington Football Team-Philadelphia Eagles game and Seattle Seahawks-Los Angeles Rams game scheduled for Sunday, December 19, have been moved to Tuesday, December 21.  Washington-Philadelphia and Seattle-Los Angeles Rams will both kick off at 7 p.m. ET on FOX and also will be available on NFL Sunday Ticket.

We have made these schedule changes based on medical advice and after discussion with the NFLPA as we are seeing a new, highly transmissible form of the virus this week resulting in a substantial increase in cases across the league.

We continue to make decisions in consultation with medical experts to ensure the health and safety of the NFL community.”

The updated Week 15 schedule (all times ET):

Saturday, December 18
New England Patriots at Indianapolis Colts      8:15 PMNFLN
Sunday, December 19
Carolina Panthers at Buffalo Bills1:00 PMFOX
Arizona Cardinals at Detroit Lions1:00 PMFOX
Houston Texans at Jacksonville Jaguars1:00 PMCBS
New York Jets at Miami Dolphins1:00 PMCBS
Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants1:00 PMFOX
Tennessee Titans at Pittsburgh Steelers1:00 PMCBS
Cincinnati Bengals at Denver Broncos4:05 PMCBS
Atlanta Falcons at San Francisco 49ers4:05 PMCBS
Green Bay Packers at Baltimore Ravens4:25 PMFOX
New Orleans Saints at Tampa Bay Buccaneers8:20 PMNBC
Monday, December 20
Las Vegas Raiders at Cleveland Browns 5:00 PMNFLN
Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears8:15 PMESPN
Tuesday, December 21
Seattle Seahawks at Los Angeles Rams 7:00 PMFOX
Washington Football Team at Philadelphia Eagles 7:00 PMFOX

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell also released the following memo explaining the decision to postpone the games.

Raiders owner Mark Davis is, of course, taking this opportunity to complain that the moves put the Raiders at a competitive disadvantage.

Perhaps the only positive part of this stunning spike in cases is that there will now be an NFL game every day from Saturday through Tuesday, followed by a 49ers game on Thursday night.