NFL-Steelers and Ravens game moved to Sunday after positive tests

The Baltimore Ravens' Thanksgiving Day game with the unbeaten Pittsburgh Steelers has been moved to Sunday following a number of positive COVID-19 tests from Ravens players, the National Football League (NFL) said on Wednesday.

The Baltimore Ravens' Thanksgiving Day game with the unbeaten Pittsburgh Steelers has been moved to Sunday following a number of positive COVID-19 tests from Ravens players, the National Football League (NFL) said on Wednesday. The game between AFC North rivals Steelers (10-0) and Ravens (6-4) was the marquee matchup on the U.S. Thanksgiving Thursday.

The NFL said on Twitter the decision was made out of an abundance of caution to ensure the health and safety of players, coaches and game-day personnel. The league did not say when the game would be played on Sunday. The Ravens placed three players on their Reserve/COVID-19 list earlier this week. By Tuesday, five players and four staffers had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to ESPN.

The NFL's Thanksgiving Day lineup, which was expanded from two games to three in 2006, is an American cultural tradition alongside pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes, with turkey-stuffed families retiring in front of the television each year to deliver blockbuster ratings. A handful of Steelers players, including 2018 Pro Bowler JuJu Smith-Schuster, expressed dismay over the last-minute change to the schedule.

"First the NFL takes away our bye week because another team can’t get their Covid situation together, now they take away our Thanksgiving primetime game for the same reason," Smith-Schuster wrote on Twitter. Previously, the Steelers' Week 4 game was pushed to Week 7 due to a coronavirus outbreak within the Tennessee Titans organization, one of at least a dozen games postponed this season.

The league has repeatedly ramped up its COVID-19 safety protocols and this month unveiled a contingency plan for an expanded playoff pool if the pandemic forces outright cancellations. Amid a surge in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across the U.S., all teams adopted the league's set of "intensive protocol" on Saturday.