By Amy Tennery
(Reuters) – The National Football League (NFL) handed a handful of coaches and teams hefty fines for failing to wear masks properly during Week 2 games.
The league fined the Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, New Orleans Saints, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks $250,000 each, while the head coach of each team received an additional $100,000 fine for mask noncompliance, a source confirmed to Reuters.
The league began the 2020 campaign earlier this month, after eliminating pre-season games, with numerous health and safety protocols in place designed to mitigate the risks from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than 200,000 lives in the United States.
The NFL requires all coaches and staff in the bench area to wear masks during games and recommends players on the sidelines do the same. Individual teams have been left to determine for themselves whether to allow fans inside stadiums.
The league said on Tuesday that there were zero confirmed COVID-19 positives among players for the testing period from Sept. 13-19, while there were five positives among “other personnel.”
A total of 36,664 tests were administered during that time period.
Last week, the league reported two new player positives and five positives among staff members for the testing period from Sept. 6-Sept. 12.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery; Editing by Toby Davis)
