Just days ahead of Super Bowl LX, quarterback Drake Maye confirmed a clean bill of health—ending days of speculation about the star’s shoulder injury and team illness.
But while Maye is out of the woods, fears for the rest of the team’s wellness are still swirling. Per the Patriots, “many players” have been fighting illnesses in the past weeks.
“It’s cold out there. Some sickness was going around the locker room, but I’m really feeling good,” Maye confirmed during a press conference Friday.
So, New Englanders can sigh with relief. But many are left wondering—what would have happened if an illness swept the entire team, right before America’s favorite game day? At what point must the game go on?
Last November, the University of California at Berkley’s field hockey team was forced to confront this worst-case scenario. The night before the ACC tournament, 15 Bears players and three staff members came down with food poisoning. More than 10 ended up hospitalized.
Faced with an impossible situation and postseason pressure, the Bears were forced to scrape together their remaining players against the No. 4 seed Duke. The team did their best, but with most of their starting line in the hospital, dropped the match 1-7.
“The level of illness was off the charts and when we sent the majority to the hospital Monday night, my concern for their well-being was the priority,” head coach Shellie Onstead told Cal Athletics.
Illness and injury are any coach’s nightmare. But when it comes to contagious illness, there’s very little coaches or players can do to prevent an all-out spread. Shared equipment, locker rooms, clothes and body contact are all breeding grounds for viruses, and virtually unavoidable. Even COVID-era measures like masks, social distancing and equipment disinfection are not always enough to prevent spreads.
In the regular season, most collegiate teams are able to reschedule or forfeit games due to team illness. But post-season competitions, from NCAA to the Super Bowl, are uncharted territory.
Currently, the NCAA has guidelines for individual season-ending illnesses, such as medical redshirting. But the big decision—to cancel, forfeit, postpone or push through—usually falls on the coaching staff and the players themselves.
So, the Patriots got lucky. Team illnesses can strike at any time, even for the most-watched sporting event in the United States. But questions around team illness, and how to handle it, continue to plague teams across the nation.
